3 comparisons to Chicago Bears RB David Montgomery through 3 years
As we have been following the NFL career of Chicago Bears running back David Montgomery, it has been interesting to follow the trends of how he has progressed. After his rookie season, the best comparison for Montgomery was Le’Veon Bell, which obviously brought excitement.
After two years, the two were a bit more statistically off, but he compared closer to Todd Gurley, Ricky Williams, LeSean McCoy, and Frank Gore. Now, after three seasons, what has his career NFL progression equated to? We look into three players who are the most similar to David Montgomery after three NFL seasons.
3. Leonard Fournette
The former fourth overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft has had a career that can resemble David Montgomery through his first three seasons. Below you can see how the two compare at this stage of their respective careers.
| Rush | Rush | Rush | Rush | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | From | To | AV | G | Att | Yds | TD | Y/A | Rec | Yds | TD | Y/R |
| 1 | Leonard Fournette | 2017 | 2019 | 21 | 36 | 666 | 2631 | 17 | 4.0 | 134 | 1009 | 2 | 7.5 |
| 2 | David Montgomery | 2019 | 2021 | 22 | 44 | 714 | 2808 | 21 | 3.9 | 121 | 924 | 3 | 7.6 |
Fournette has 35 fewer touches overall, for 92 few yards. Montgomery also has four more rushing touchdowns and one more receiving touchdown.
The fourth year of Leonard Fournette’s career is going to be different than Montgomery considering he got released. Still, he showed in the playoffs of his fourth NFL season that he still has what it takes to run in the NFL, and in his fifth season he took over as the top runner of the group. Now, he enters year six as the top back as well. While many worry about career length and touches for running backs, Fournette has shown that Montgomery may be able to remain a starter for the next three seasons.