The Detroit Lions are moving some pieces around on their staff after landing a new running backs coach with deep ties to Jahmyr Gibbs.

Tashard Choice will take over as the team’s running backs coach, per CBS Sports. And the Detroit Free Press adds that assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery will shift to coaching the team’s wide receivers.

Montgomery maintains his assistant head coach title while filling the hole on the staff left by Antwaan Randle El, who followed Ben Johnson to join the Chicago Bears.

It should be noted that coaching receivers is one of the areas of expertise of new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton.

Montgomery coached receivers for the Pittsburgh Steelers for two years and has also coached the position at the college level while at Duke. He played receiver in the NFL for three seasons for the Denver Broncos in the early aughts, and was a standout pass-catcher for the Blue Devils, as well.

Choice is a former NFL running back who played six years in the league between the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts. Most importantly, though, is that he played college ball and later coached at Georgia Tech.

He was instrumental in recruiting Gibbs to Georgia Tech and was the star Lions running back’s positional coach there, too.

When MLive was writing about Gibbs ahead of the divisional round, it was Choice’s name that kept coming up in talks with Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key and Gibbs’ high school running backs coach Adam Martinez.

Both pointed to Choice as someone who saw the vision when others didn’t with Gibbs. And they credited him for helping put Gibbs on Georgia Tech’s radar before the running back’s career took off.

“We’re recruiting, and Tashard Choice, who was our running backs coach at the time, brought a guy to me,” Key told MLive last month. “He’s like, ‘Yo, Key, this guy is up in your area.’ Tashard had a great eye for him and just really fell in love with his style.

“And like no one really was recruiting him at that point. Tashard did a hell of a job recruiting him …”

Now, he gets to coach Gibbs once again. But this time, the running back’s name is a little more popular after rushing for 1,400-plus rushing yards and leading the NFL with 20 touchdowns. Choice also gets to put his touches on the NFL’s most productive one-two punch, with David Montgomery and Gibbs, aka “Sonic and Knuckles.”

The Lions were ninth in the league with a 4.7-yard per carry average, sixth with 2,488 total rushing yards and second with 29 rushing touchdowns.

One thing is for sure: even with all the new faces and roles on the coaching staff, this team wants to run the ball. They have one of the best offensive lines in the game, Gibbs continues to get better, and Montgomery signed an extension last season to keep the duo around for the future.

“(We’re) definitely the best running back duo in the league,” Montgomery said last week. “But me and Jahmyr — that’s my dog. You got to be in a position, in a mental headspace, to be selfish enough to be appreciative of somebody else’s success. I think a lot of people forget that we’re all competitors, and we all want to play ball. We all want to be the guy, but sometimes you got to be selfish for the greater good of the team.

“So being able to be teamed up with somebody of Jahmyr’s magnitude and to be able to do it with him and do it together, I think, is super special. And when it’s all said and done, when me and him are done playing together, we’ll be the best running back duo to ever play together.”