Chicago Bears: How David Montgomery has taken major strides in 2020

2019 didn’t go as expected for Montgomery and the Chicago Bears

Many fans expected Montgomery to instantly go off. To many fans’ displeasure, Montgomery didn’t do much in 2019. But, it wasn’t entirely all his fault.

After Nagy said he wanted to get the run game going, he proved to show he really didn’t. Montgomery ran the ball a lot, but there were plenty of games where Montgomery only ran the ball near 10 times. Even when Montgomery saw his carries, he looked to be largely ineffective.

Montgomery finished the season with 242 carries for 889 yards (3.67 yards/attempt) and six touchdowns. He also caught 25 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown. He did finish the year with over 1,000 all-purpose yards, but for Chicago, a team used to seeing running backs rush for well-over 1,000 yards, this was a disappointment.

The offensive line did Montgomery no favors though as he ranked 26th in the NFL in yards before contact per rush with 2.0. But, even besides that, Montgomery wasn’t shedding tackles as well either as he ranked 45th (out of 47) in yards after contact per rush. Montgomery struggled with vision early on that played a major part in this and he showed that as a rookie.

But all rookies make mistakes. No rookie comes in perfect as they always need to be improving or they will die off and not make it in the NFL. That’s exactly what Montgomery has done.