Chicago Bears: Quarterback issues or lack of pass catchers?

If David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen show more, watch out!

The Chicago Bears moved on from Jordan Howard after Matt Nagy felt he wasn’t a good fit for the offense. After scouting around a dozen running backs in the 2019 NFL draft, the Chicago Bears selected David Montgomery.

Montgomery was lauded for his route-running out of the backfield and split out as a receiver. He finished with 185 yards receiving on 25 catches to 35 targets. That is a slight upgrade to Jordan Howard, who had 145 yards receiving on 20 catches to 25 targets in 2018.

The Chicago Bears are going to need a lot more from David Montgomery this upcoming season as a receiving back if they want to be known as a team that can hurt a team in the air. Montgomery was often compared to Kareem Hunt, who came on blazing his rookie year. He had 63 targets and caught 53 passes for 455 yards.

Even during his returning year with the Cleveland Browns, Hunt had 285 yards receiving on 37 catches with 44 targets. Montgomery will need to focus on being that dual-threat running back. He at least needs to get to his 2017 college level, where he had 36 catches for 296 yards to keep the defense honest.

Tarik Cohen was likely the biggest disappointment on the team as a pass-catcher. In 2018 Cohen had 71 catches for 725 yards on 91 targets. In 2019 Cohen had a whopping 104 targets but only caught eight more passes than 2018 for 456. The quick-twitch agile running back needs to come out and show that he deserves a contract extension and can get open even when teams are game-planning against him.