'Laws of the Jungle:' What makes David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs the best 1-2 punch in the NFL?

Lions RB coach Tashard Choice was incredibly insightful this week dissecting the best duo in the sport. Their success is no secret.

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Press conferences can be a waste of time for all parties involved.

But that certainly is not the case in Detroit.

Dan Campbell is his authentic self at the mic, and so are his assistant coaches. On our visit to Allen Park, Mich., this week, I thought Tashard Choice’s breakdown of his two backs — David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs — was fascinating. The Lions running backs coach played the position himself from 2008- ‘13, coached Bijan Robinson at Texas and certainly brings bite to the profession today with these 4-1 Lions.

In addition to this week’s feature — Power of the Mind — here’s what Choice had to say about Montgomery and Gibbs.

He’s demanding.

Both players must abide by his “laws of the jungle.”

On boasting two running backs who keep this offense humming:

“They feed off each other. Their relationship is pretty cool. I had an opportunity to be in some really good rooms where you have guys that have different skill-sets and we play together. But watching D-Mo and Jah — and how they work — when one of them does well, the other one wants to out-do him. It’s just a competitive nature that they have. They have the wants. My high school coach used to say, ‘I don’t care. I just need 11 players who have the wants. They just want the ball. They want to be the guy in those situations.’ And having two of ‘em, their ability to play together and to feed off each other is awesome. And they’ve got to continue to get better.

“Because what they’ve done so far? It ain’t good enough. We need to do better. So for me — they get all the praise — I try to make sure they understand to always deflect, but how much they think they’ve done, they can do even better. So when we watch film, they probably hate watching film with me. They know. After D-Mo scored the touchdown, he had bad ball security. The first thing he said was, ‘Coach, don’t give me a minus on the ball security.’ Damn right, I am. It’s part of the game. We’ve got to protect the football. So for me, I’m OK being that guy. I have to be that guy. When you have guys who are really, really good football players that want to be great, they want to be coached to be great. Great players want to be coached at all times. Even when they do well. So, I have to watch myself. I don’t want to be Negative Nancy, but I try to find stuff to critique ‘em and get on their nerves about. D-Mo, the other day. It was really funny, I said, ‘D-Mo, you’re getting better on your wide zone track. Was it the drills we did?’ He said, ‘No, coach. I hear you nagging me in my ear.’ Those are the things that matter in the game when it’s crunch time. So I’m actually proud of that part.”

On if he got on him about his ball security during the game:

“Absolutely. He understands that’s what I look for. I look for ball security. We’ve got to keep his football high and tight. We’ve got to chin the football. Four points of pressure. Those things are important. Protecting the quarterback. But most importantly for the whole team, it’s protecting the football. We hold everybody in this organization in our hands when we’ve got that ball in our hands. He understands that responsibility. And when you’ve got guys that do, that means everything to me. And that means everything to the defense. It means everything to everybody who works here. I take pride in that and I think those guys do as well.”

On Montgomery in pass protection:

“Animal! Animal, animal. I love how they run but when they put their face on somebody? That’s everything. I’ve got laws of the jungle. The first one is protect the football. The second one is protecting the quarterback. JG is everything to them. How you show respect as a running back—because you get so much praise running the football—when you block, when you put your face on people, and you do it over and over again, it gets me riled up. I may get more excited at that than when they score a touchdown because that’s the selflessness. When you talk about receivers blocking down the football field, that’s how it goes. When you do stuff away from the football to make big plays, that’s what football is all about. … Him and Jah both. I can show you clips of Jah putting his facemask on people. That makes me really, really excited. But then I’ll tell ‘em they’re sorry as hell at the end of the day.” (laughs)

On his “laws of the jungle:”

“Protect the football. Protect the quarterback. Run with physicality. Run with second and third efforts. Catch the football. Run defined routes. Score touchdowns. I came up with that when I first started getting into coaching because I looked at the running back position as, ‘How can you positively affect the football game? And be a good teammate?’ Scoring touchdowns is last. The thing that most running backs care about — scoring — I put that last. The thing we’re going to do is make sure we protect the football and protect that quarterback. And we’re going to run physical. We’re going to break tackles. Those are the things I try to make sure those guys understand. That’s what we want to represent. When you look at the running backs, that’s what we want to see. That’s what I want teams to see. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve tried to imprint on those guys and they’re being really receptive and really coachable. I’m telling you, the group I work with on this offensive staff and the players on this team, I’m really thankful to be here.”