For the second time in a matter of weeks, the Detroit Lions are signing veteran running back Devine Ozigbo.
The Lions had initially signed the 27-year-old to their active roster ahead of their October 30 win over the the Las Vegas Raiders, but released him three days later. One week later, the Lions are once again adding Ozigbo to their practice squad and bringing some depth to a key position.
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As Jeff Risdon of USA Today’s Lions Wire noted, Ozigbo had been released last week to allow the Lions to sign linebacker Trevor Nowaske to the active roster.
Ozigbo started the season on Detroit’s practice squad but was elevated twice before being signed to the active roster for the Raiders game. In his three total appearances, Ozigbo had three carries for 5 yards and one catch for 8 yards.
Ozigbo saw time both on offense and special teams in the October 30 win over the Raiders.
The Lions could be getting another important addition in the backfield as the injured David Montgomery was a full participant in practice on November 9. Montgomery said last week that he was taking his recovery slow and feeling better.
“We just trying to take it one day at a time,” Montgomery told the Detroit Free Press last week. “We really don’t know right now, but right now we’re just trying to make sure I get back as healthy as I can. The bye week helps a lot, just have a little bit of time, but other than that, we get right.”
Montgomery has now had the bye week to recover, and the Lions have a chance to build on their division lead against the Los Angeles Chargers. Heavy projections powered by Quarter4 give the Lions a 59% win probability for the game.
With Montgomery healthy, the team could be planning new twists on offense. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson hinted that the team could pair Montgomery with rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs in the backfield at the same time.
“It’s always a fun exercise to do and certainly do it at the end of the season, the bye week’s another good time to do it, but you kind of look through your roster, the guys that are available to you and you kind of – you might rank them,” Johnson said, via Lions Wire. “You say, ‘Hey, these are our top 11 guys that we really feel good about on offense,’ and usually you want to get those 11 guys out on the field together as much as possible and I think both those guys are within those top 11 players that we have on offense. So, yeah, there’s a strong argument to get them both out there together more often.”
Johnson could not say exactly how the team would employ the two at the same time, but said he believes both Montgomery and Gibbs would be up to the challenge.
“They know the entire gameplan in and out, so some might be by series, some might be play-specific, but both those guys can handle a lot,” Johnson said.