Chicago Bears: David Montgomery is the player to watch vs. Packers

Chicago Bears rookie running back David Montgomery is the most intriguing player in the NFL season opener against the Green Bay Packers.

When the Chicago Bears take the field for their 2019 NFL season-opening matchup against the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, it will be with a lot of familiar faces from last season. General manager Ryan Pace worked hard to keep as much of this roster in place as he could, basically only improving on the margins and making replacements where he had to.

The Bears were a great team last season and if it were not for a partially blocked field goal, they would have been legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Bringing back as much of that team as possible certainly made some sense.

In this game, I am certainly interested to see how Aaron Rodgers looks in new head coach Matt LaFleur’s system. Seeing how Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky has improved will also be intriguing. However, there is not a player I am more interested to see on Thursday night than Chicago Bears rookie running back David Montgomery.

Montgomery was the Bears’ first selection in the 2019 NFL Draft when they traded up to snag him in the top half of the first round. He had an impressive college career at Iowa State, consistently racking up yards on the ground and making plays in the passing game.

Montgomery is an ideal fit for Matt Nagy’s offense, due to his ability to make plays in a variety of ways. He is a powerful back who can handle early-down work well. Montgomery shows great patience and ball carrier vision, good quickness in short spaces and impressive power at the point of attack. His contact balance is his most impressive trait, as Montgomery always seems to keep his feet through contact, picking up extra yardage than expected on nearly every run.

This combination of skills should allow the Bears to be able to lean on Montgomery for early-down work. However, his ability to make an impact as a pass-catcher should keep defenses honest.

There were times last season where the Bears were predictable simply based on which running back they had in the game. If Jordan Howard was in the backfield, it was probably a run. If Tarik Cohen was in the game, it was probably a pass. With Montgomery being a true threat no matter the situation, defenses will have to account for everything while he is in the game.

Can David Montgomery establish himself as the primary running back for the Chicago Bears early in the season? That is an important question for this team that we may be able to answer after Thursday night.