Chicago Bears running back is looking to have a big sophomore campaign
Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Pace drafted David Montgomery in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Iowa State. It was another example of Ryan Pace trading up in the draft to get a player he really liked. Montgomery, while not the number one rated back coming out, was thought of as a top-three running back by most people.
I think Montgomery showed a lot of promise in his rookie season. He ran for 889 yards, on 242 carries, with 6 touchdowns. The one real concerning thing from his play, in my opinion, was that he had a 3.7 yard per carry average. He definitely will want to get that above 4.0, however, I feel a lot of that can also come down to how Matt Nagy uses as well.
Coach Nagy likes to run primarily out of the shotgun and seems to be against running from a traditional I formation at times. In my opinion, and many others, Montgomery has the potential to be a legitimate franchise back that can go over a thousand yards for years to come.
The Bears love to work in Tarik Cohen as they should, because he is an explosive player and a great compliment to Montgomery, especially in passing situations. With all of their questions at quarterback still unanswered, they should be using David Montgomery as their feature back.
Montgomery was only heavily featured in four games last season. There were four games where he was given 20 or more touches and in three of those games he had 4.0 or better YPC. Including a monster game against the Los Angeles Chargers where he had 135 yards and a touchdown.
With all this being said, Montgomery has shown that he can get the job done, a lot of it is going to come down how he is being used. If Matt Nagy truly feeds him and gets him closer to 300 carries, I think he will easily go over that 1,000-yard mark.