Two scoring touchdowns in Detroit's Week 5 rout of Arizona — a 45-21 result — pushed Gibbs beyond the career rushing mark Barry Sanders had accumulated before his 25th birthday, leaving Gibbs as the outright holder of that franchise record.

At the start of Sunday's contest, Gibbs carried 56 touchdown receptions to his name, leaving him a single score short of Sanders on that particular leaderboard. With 13 fixtures still to play on the Lions' 2026-27 schedule, Gibbs would not reach his 25th birthday until the following March.

Gibbs punched it in from a yard out to open the scoring in the second quarter. A seven-play march covering 54 yards brought the score level at 7-7, capping a stretch in which Detroit had surrendered possession four consecutive times without an answer.

With the fourth quarter still unfolding, Gibbs moved ahead of Sanders to claim the lead position. At 38-14 in the Lions' favour, Gibbs took a handoff on a play drawn up to attack the left side. With a cluster of Arizona defenders blocking the path ahead, Gibbs cut toward the right sideline and pulled clear of the pursuit, reaching the corner of the end zone untouched.

According to the official play-by-play, Gibbs was credited with a 3-yard touchdown run, though the actual distance he navigated to reach the end zone stretched beyond that recorded figure.

Across 25 carries, Gibbs piled up 151 rushing yards alongside the pair of touchdowns he had already put on the board. Five receptions translated into 56 receiving yards, and when combined with his ground output, the total from scrimmage climbed past 200 yards against an Arizona unit that had surrendered 1,405 yards overall — placing it 23rd across the league — and 470 on the ground, a figure that put it 20th.

Through five appearances, Gibbs has tallied touchdowns on 46 carries and added 12 more by way of the catch. On the ground, he has covered 4,044 yards through carrying the ball, with another 581 yards added via the passing game.

Through seven touchdowns on the ground — a total that places him level with the league's most prolific scorers — Gibbs has also piled up 504 rushing yards, a figure bettered by only one other ball-carrier in the NFL entering the week after Sunday's game.

Gibbs was selected at pick 12 in the 2023 NFL Draft. Running backs acquired as free agents can reshape a team's backfield before draft week even begins, and that was the case when Detroit brought Montgomery aboard in the period leading up to the selection process. A three-year contract extension worth $67.5 million, agreed upon during training camp this year, placed Gibbs at the top of the pay scale among running backs across the league.

With 14 contests still on the schedule, the gap Gibbs may ultimately open between himself and Sanders — along with other NFL figures such as Randy Moss, Emmitt Smith, and Jim Brown — remains an open question. Projecting from a career average of 14 rushing touchdowns and four receiving scores each season, that record carries room to climb still further.