3 areas where David Montgomery must improve for Chicago Bears

No one is saying that David Montgomery is not a good running back. Still, the Chicago Bears have a big decision to make when it comes to how much the team wants to extend him. When it comes down to deciding just how much he is worth, the team is going to get out the magnifying glass and poke at every hole in his game.

If the Chicago Bears do not extend Montgomery this offseason, it may be because they want to see him improving in the following areas.

3. Yards After Contact

For his career, David Montgomery averages 2.66 yards after contact per attempt. That sounds great until you stack his numbers up against others. For instance, looking into just last year, the career marks by Montgomery would rank 45th overall. Rashaad Penny averaged 4.52 yards after contact, while Nick Chubb was at 4.24.

Last season Montgomery was actually below his career mark, ranking 48th amongst qualified runners in yards after contact. This is about on par for Montgomery. In his rookie season, he was at 2.33 yards after contact. He had a great run in 2020 with 3.09 then fell back to 2.53 last season to get his average of 2.66.

Still, in his best year, he ranked 19th, and in his rookie season, he ranked 48th amongst backs with at least 110 rushes. Montgomery will be compared to Josh Jacobs in contract talks, and he averages 3.08 yards after contact per attempt. For his career Chubb is at 4.08, Joe Mixon is at 2.87, and even James Conner is at 2.79 for his career.

These are three recent names who just signed deals. If teams look at Montgomery and see that Conner gets more yards after contact, will they give him a bigger deal than Conner? He needs to at least get closer to that rate.