Year 4 for Lions quarterback Jahmyr Gibbs will be different.
He’s set to take on Detroit’s bell-cow role in his first season without running mate David Montgomery, but he’s also been preparing in a new way for the 2026 campaign.
Gibbs began incorporating mixed martial arts into his offseason training in March, according to ESPN’s Eric Woodyard, which helped change his body for the better.
“It helps with body control. Your base and all that and quick hands,” Gibbs told Woodyard. “I would say with a block, I get my hands up before they hit me.”
“I feel like my body is in better shape, like physically it looks better. And conditioning-wise, this condition is completely different than here because you use non-stop movement in all the muscles of your body. Out here [in football]you get more breaks and [there is] much more using the legs. But there [in MMA]it’s just stable shoulders, knees, elbows, you go to the ground and all that, so out here I hardly get tired.”