David Montgomery has drastically improved for the Chicago Bears
After the 2018 season, the Chicago Bears moved on from Jordan Howard and intended on replacing him in the NFL Draft. Many people called for Darrell Henderson or Miles Sanders, but the Bears had their eyes set on David Montgomery out of Iowa State.
Montgomery didn’t have blazing speed, but his shiftiness and physicality were very impressive. As the workhorse back in both 2017 and 2018, Montgomery ran for over 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns in both seasons. He also showed his receiving ability catching 36 passes in 2017.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), he had the highest grade of any running back in the draft class over the likes of Josh Jacobs, Devin Singletary, Miles Sanders, and Damien Harris. He graded as a 91.1.
He forced the most missed tackles of any running back in college football in both 2017 and 2018. According to PFF, he was the only player to ever break over 100 tackles in a single season. He did it in both 2017 and 2018.
The Bears selected him in the third round trading up with the New England Patriots to get their guy. They moved up from pick 87 to pick 73. This gave the Bears their shifty backfield of Tarik Cohen and Montgomery with two different style running backs as well. It looked to be a great backfield forming for Matt Nagy who wanted to finally get the run game going.