Isiah Pacheco Contract Terms
The Lions are signing running back Isiah Pacheco, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Tuesday, per a source informed of the deal. It's a one-year, $1.81 million fully guaranteed deal..
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Fantasy Football Impact for Isiah Pacheco with the Detroit Lions
Pacheco will pair with Jahmyr Gibbs and fill the void left when the Lions agreed to trade David Montgomery to the Houston Texans last week.
A seventh-round pick in 2022, Pacheco has appeared in 51 regular-season games with 42 starts. Once the Chiefs agreed to terms with running back Ken Walker III, Pacheco's return to the Chiefs became highly unlikely.
A turning point in Pacheco's career occurred in Week 2 of the 2024 season. He didn't finish the game after he broke the fibula in his right leg, an injury that forced him to miss 10 games. Since then, he hasn't been as dynamic and explosive as he was during the 2023 season, when he generated a career-high 935 rushing yards and nine total touchdowns.
Last season, Pacheco, who was in the final year of his rookie contract, didn't have a single rushing attempt in which he gained 20 or more yards.
He finished 2025 with 462 rushing yards in 13 games, with 12 starts.
At his best, Pacheco runs angry and plays with energy. The question is whether he has juice left in the tank after his explosive run rate trailed off.
As NFL.com's Kevin Patra suggests, if healthy, Pacheco can offer physicality behind Gibbs, giving the Lions a violent runner who can spell their dynamic three-down back.
Another question is whether Detroit will ask him to take some of the third-down and goal-line carries Montgomery took. In the past two seasons, Pacheco had nine carries for 15 yards and one score on third and short (1-2 yards) or fourth down. In 2025, he had zero goal-line carries and took three in 2024 for one total yard and one score.
Unless he can break out of those red-zone and short-yardage doldrums, Pacheco is going to offer little to fantasy managers beyond the same insurance for Gibbs he'll provide the Lions.
That being the case, his RB46 Footballguys projection isn't out of line, although Gibbs' investors will likely be willing to pay a slight premium to secure his services.
