By 
The Detroit Lions’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8 will be a memorable one for the 2026 season. It moved the Lions into a game behind the Vikings for the lead in the NFC North, keeping them at a perfect 2-0 in all-important divisional games. It allowed the 1972 Miami Dolphins to pop the cork on their celebratory champagne as the league’s only undefeated team. And it also set the stage for the NFL to have its first running back since 2012 to claim the league’s MVP award.
Jahmyr Gibbs is the best running back in the NFL, and if he’s going to keep doing what he’s been doing over these first couple of months, he should end up being the MVP.
If you’re over the age of 40, congratulations, you’ve been gifted—blessed—the unique opportunity to see two of the best running backs in NFL history. I’ve been done with tiptoeing around the comparisons to Barry Sanders—he’s doing stuff like this on a weekly basis:
But it’s not just the highlight plays that paint him as the heir apparent to Sanders; you see it in the numbers, too. Gibbs sports the fourth-best success rate among running backs at 48.4% across 157 carries, but he also has the most stuffed runs—rushes that result in gains of zero or negative yardage—in the NFL (33) and ranks 38th among 46 qualifying running backs in stuffed rate (21.0%) according to SumerStats. Through the lens of modern analytics, it doesn’t get much more Sanders-esque than that.
Given the sheer volume of his workload, his success rate becomes that much more impressive among his peers. The three running backs with higher success rates are Blake Corum (75 rushing attempts), Christian McCaffrey (84), and Jaylen Warren (119). The preseason comments about Gibbs becoming the bell-cow running back for Detroit couldn’t have been more prescient, and right now, he’s the frontrunner for Best in Show.
Gibbs is averaging the most yards from scrimmage among running backs (149.9 yards), and the next closest player—Kenneth Walker—is over 20 yards off pace. He leads the league in missed tackles forced (51) in just seven games, according to Pro Football Focus. Last year’s leader in missed tackles forced was Bijan Robinson at 86. Gibbs’ current pace of 121 would be the highest recorded figure in PFF’s stat tracking history. He has the most runs of 10+ yards (27) and is currently seventh in yards after contact per attempt (3.56)—second in total yards after contact (559) according to SumerStats.
But the real measure for MVP voting will rely on the traditional box score statistics, and Gibbs is on track to hit all the benchmarks to put together a special season worthy of MVP consideration. He’s averaging over 110 rushing yards per game and on pace for nearly 1,900 rushing yards, which really helps put 2,000 yards in perspective given how incredible Gibbs has been. He’s averaging over a touchdown per game (1.4) and on pace for 24 total touchdowns—the highest mark since LaDainian Tomlinson set the single-season record 20 years ago with 31 en route to his MVP award. If it’s not rewriting the history books like LT in 2006, it takes absurd numbers plus a narrative for a running back to win the award. Adrian Peterson’s 2012 season, where he carried a deeply flawed Vikings offense to the playoffs by rushing for 2,097 yards, was the last time those stars aligned.
What’s unique about Gibbs’ chance at becoming the first running back to win the award in over a decade is the relative lack of standouts at the quarterback position through eight weeks. Statistically speaking, Joe Burrow is putting together the numbers—first in completion percentage (73%), touchdown passes (20), and passing yards per game (302.1)—but if the Bengals can’t beat out the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC North, and if their defense keeps them out of the playoffs for another season, would voters crown him the league’s MVP? Trevor Lawrence’s impressive start to the season includes 17 touchdown passes to just four interceptions, and he leads the NFL in passer rating, so maybe there’s something there if he keeps on pace. If Josh Allen wins the award for his second time in three seasons because he has a bunch of one-yard rushing touchdowns, so be it; at least we’ll know a non-QB will never have a chance to win the league’s MVP moving forward.
The NFL has spent the last decade-plus morphing into a pass-heavy league where running backs are sold as replaceable, interchangeable pieces to an offense. Without David Montgomery sharing the backfield, Gibbs is tearing down that narrative. He’s delivering game-breaking efficiency behind an offensive line that’s been good, but not great. While critics might point out that he plays in one of the league’s most potent offenses, anyone watching Detroit each Sunday knows Gibbs is the single biggest key to their success.
If the MVP award is truly meant for the player who dictates defenses, transforms and elevates an entire offense, and shoulders great expectations for contender week in and week out, then the 2026 race shouldn’t default to the coronation of just another quarterback—it should belong to the league’s most explosive and irreplaceable player.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jahmyr-gibbs-nfl-mvp-184558189.html