Isiah Pacheco isn’t going to be in the Detroit Lions lineup anytime soon. While he’s required to miss three more games after the team put him on injured reserve to start the season, Lions coach Dan Campbell made it sound like his absence will extend much larger. On Monday, Campbell revealed that Pacheco’s back injury required surgery.
“It’s going to be a while,” Campbell said. “Yeah, it’s going to be a while. I mean, I really can’t (provide a timeline). It’s going to be a significant amount of time,
though.”
NFL reporter Ian Rapoport gave a more substantive update, noting that Pacheco could be targeting a December return.
“Isiah Pacheco had surgery to remove a body that was pressing on a nerve in his back, source said. It’s a 12 week recovery with a chance he’s back by early in December,” Rapoport tweeted.
This offseason, the Lions signed Pacheco to a one-year, $1.81 million contract in the hopes he could take over the RB2 role following the trade of David Montgomery. With Jahmyr Gibbs taking over a bigger role, Detroit obviously put lesser investment in the backup position.
On Sunday, the Lions gave the backup job to Sione Vaki, who received his first significant action on offense since entering the league in 2024. Vaki only had three touches in the game—two rushes for 7 yards and one catch for 10. But it was his pass protection struggles that stood out the most, including a play in which he got in Penei Sewell’s way, leading to a pressure and quarterback hit.
“He was inconsistent,” Campbell said. “There were some thing in there that he’s got to be better at. I know the one that everyone’s talking about. I know that was — can’t do that, he knows that, and we’ve got to get him cleaned up. And so it was inconsistent, but he did have some reps in there that were good. He had a couple of carriest that I thought were pretty good. He got a ball on a checkdown that wasn’t bad. We’ve just gotta tighten this stuff up with him a little bit, because we’re going to need to be able to use him. That’s the bottom line, he and (Jacob) Saylors.”
It will be interesting to see how the Lions handle that backup role moving forward. Campbell insisted after Sunday’s win over the New Orleans Saints that he was unbothered by having Gibbs set a career high in rushing attempts (29) and touches (34).
“You know what I like? Winning the game, man, and we were going to win this game. That guy’s our hot hand,” Campbell said. “Ultimately, do I want to set records with how many carries? No, that’s not something I want to do. When you look at a guy, and you feel like, ‘Alright, man.’ He’s in good shape. I mean, he had a really good camp, and he is in phenomenal shape. He’s in the best shape I’ve seen since he’s been here. Now that doesn’t mean we’re not going to monitor, and we’re going to keep an eye on this guy because we understand that too, but we did what we had to do today.”
