The Detroit Lions signed Jahmyr Gibbs to a contract extension worth $67.5 million, making him the highest-paid running back in the NFL, a title that changed hands so many times over the past two years it should come with a rental agreement. Gibbs, 24, just spent a season proving the running back is not dead, merely underpaid, which is a different problem and apparently a fixable one if you are good enough and Detroit enough. He ran for over 1,400 yards last season behind a line the Lions built like a religion. The extension is Detroit's answer to a question the rest of the league keeps asking out loud: pay the back, or let him walk and watch someone else's offense break.

Here is the number that actually explains the deal. Running back money collapsed leaguewide after teams decided the position was replaceable, then reversed itself the moment a small handful of backs proved they were not: Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, now Gibbs. Detroit is not buying a running back so much as renewing a lease on the specific machine that makes its offense work, the one where Gibbs and David Montgomery turn a defense's fourth-quarter legs into Detroit's fourth-quarter points. The Lions just told the market that some backs are still worth building around. The rest of the league will find out in November whether they agree, when Gibbs runs through them again.