Chicago Bears: 4 offseason moves to level-up David Montgomery
By Ryan Heckman
Promoting John DeFilippo will only increase Montgomery’s productivity
One of the possible moves to improve Montgomery has already happened, and it is going to have a huge impact. John DeFilippo was promoted to the Bears’ passing game coordinator, and this will have big implications for the running backs.
Historically, DeFilippo loves throwing to his running backs. He does it more than most offensive coordinators in the league. Even though he’s not the official offensive coordinator, Flip will have a major hand in how the offense is run.
Last year, Montgomery caught 54 passes on 68 targets for 438 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
In DeFilippo’s last season before joining Chicago, he was responsible for Leonard Fournette’s biggest season yet. In Jacksonville’s offense that year, Fournette was targeted a whopping 100 times — after not being looked at as a threat through the air. Fournette proved he was capable of catching the football, and DeFilippo helped him do so.
In 2018 under DeFilippo, the Minnesota Vikings targeted their running backs 99 times even though they had two Pro Bowl caliber receivers in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs. In 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles used a committee of five to six running backs throughout the season without having one tried and true starter and four of them received double-digit targets.
DeFilippo is no dummy. He can see the talent that is Montgomery. He’ll make sure the Bears use him in the passing game even more than they did last year, that’s almost a guarantee.