Lions' David Montgomery drops major update after suffering injury vs Bills

David Montgomery made Detroit Lions fans curse their luck when Detroit coach Dan Campbell announced on Sunday that he had suffered a season-ending knee surgery against the Buffalo Bills. The game was heartbreaking for another reason as well, as the Bills' 48-42 win ended the Lions' 11-game winning streak.

However, Lions fans may be able to sleep a bit easier. Just days after Campbell said that he would be out for the season, the running back was spotted at a charity coat drive event in Detroit on Tuesday.

When asked why the team hadn't placed him on the IR, he said that the Lions were still working out the logistics. And despite Campbell's statement, when he was asked if he would play again this season, he gave a surprising response.

"I hope so."

So, it seems that the running back is not closing the doors on a possible return this season. The Lions have already clinched a playoff berth. It just remains to be seen whether it will be a divisional berth or a wild-card round, although analysts are leaning toward the divisional berth.

Either way, if David Montgomery manages to recover from the surgery in time, it will provide a great offensive boost to the Lions (12-2), whose season has been plagued by injuries. They may have managed to win regular season games despite the laundry list of injuries, but the playoffs are a different ball game.

Who will fill in for David Montgomery in his absence?

Dan Campbell has tasked Jahmyr Gibbs with the extra workload during David Montgomery's absence. In a recent conversation with reporters, he said that the trick to ready him for the task was to maximize his reps but not "killing him."

While he acknowledged that he had offensive weapons such as Sione Vaki and Craig Reynolds, he said that Gibbs is RB1.

"We’re still going to need some help out of Reynolds and Vaki and those guys, and that’ll be the big thing here," Campbell said. "But, yeah, he’s about to go up. And, look, he’s ready for this, man. He’s gotten better and better all season, and now he’s our lead horse. He’s gotta be ready to roll."

Can the Lions continue to maintain their trajectory over the remaining regular season games and into the playoffs?