Two of the best young running backs in football didn't practice Tuesday, and both absences trace back to the same root cause: money. Adam Schefter dropped the news that Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson were each held out, with both having had offseason conversations about long-term extensions.
Adam Schefter connected the dots between the two absences and the contract talks behind them.
This isn't some minor beat-writer footnote. Gibbs and Robinson are widely expected to become the first $25 million-per-year running backs in NFL history, a number that would obliterate the current market and reset what teams have to pay their top backs going forward. Robinson just watched Drake London get paid at receiver, and reports out of Atlanta have suggested his own extension is close. In Detroit, Gibbs is extension-eligible now and reportedly drawing projections anywhere from a 3-year, $69 million deal to a 4-year, $84 million deal — RB-market-topping money either way.
SleeperNFL flagged both backs sitting out the same day as their contract talks heat up.
The two situations are basically racing each other. Whichever side blinks first sets the number the other camp negotiates against, which is exactly why neither team wants to be the one that overpays — and exactly why neither player wants to be the one who signs cheap right before the other guy resets the market.
Dan Campbell, for his part, isn't panicking publicly. Asked about Gibbs' situation, the Lions coach kept it vague and unbothered, saying it'll "come as it comes" while both sides work through it.
Dan Campbell downplayed the tension, framing the holdout-adjacent absence as a normal part of the process.
None of this screams holdout drama yet — these are voluntary/situational absences during a negotiation, not a training camp standoff. But fantasy managers and Lions/Falcons fans alike should keep an eye on both backfields as camp rolls on. If either side digs in, workload distribution and depth-chart questions become very real, very fast. For now, it's a contract chess match playing out in real time on two different practice fields.