These are the eight blue-chippers currently on the Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears Blue-Chip Player: David Montgomery, RB

Another player that not everyone might agree with being a blue-chip player on the Chicago Bears is David Montgomery. I know one person who is against including him on this list — Johnathan Wood of DaBears Blog.

The thing is, stats are not everything when it comes to a player. There is this thing called “the eye test” and David Montgomery passes it. He has incredible vision and balance. He is also one of the best in the league at breaking tackles. In his first two years, Montgomery broke 28 and 29 tackles. He only broke 16 in 2021, but that was still tied for 12th in the league.

One thing to note is that Montgomery saw an average of 1.9 yards before seeing contact. To give a comparison, Dalvin Cook saw 2.7 yards and Jonathan Taylor saw 2.6.  Where Montgomery struggled this year though was his yards after contact. He only saw 1.9 this year, after gaining 2.4 last year. Montgomery is also able to make catches out of the backfield. He had 68 targets in 2020 and 51 this season. He caught 79.4% of those passes last year and 82.4% this year.

Although it doesn’t matter when determining if a player is a blue-chipper or not, but Montgomery is also a great leader in the locker room. It will be interesting if he gets a second contract from new GM Ryan Poles or not.