Chicago Bears must get David Montgomery more involved going forward
If the Chicago Bears expect to improve on their putrid offensive performance from Thursday night, they simply must look to get rookie running back David Montgomery involved.
The Chicago Bears offense looked terrible in their 10-3 season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, and if things are going to change, they are going to have to make some changes.
Ever since the Bears drafted David Montgomery in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft, we have heard many times about how much the team loves their rookie running back. Even with that being the case, head coach Matt Nagy and the Bears refused to give Montgomery an opportunity to prove himself in the first game of the season.
On paper, Montgomery did not look great. He carried the ball six times on Thursday night and only finished with 18 yards rushing. He did make a nice 27-yard catch down the field late in the game, but overall, it was a pedestrian game for the rookie on the stat sheet. That being said, Montgomery looked explosive early in the game and consistently found himself open in the passing game. The Bears missed many opportunities to feature Montgomery on Thursday night.
Heading into the season, we knew the Bears would be featuring some sort of three-way committee in the backfield. Montgomery was always going to share snaps with Tarik Cohen and Mike Davis. However, he is the most well-rounded player of the bunch and arguably the most talented. Montgomery should be seeing a bulk of the running back snaps.
According to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, Cohen led the Bears running backs with 44 snaps played. Davis had 31, while Montgomery only played 25 snaps. Now, Cohen did have an extremely high snap count, but the Bears lined him out as a wide receiver many times. Most of the time while Cohen was on the field, another running back was also out there.
The biggest issue here is Davis getting more snaps than Montgomery. Davis is a nice power back who certainly has some value as a part-time player. However, Montgomery is clearly a much-more talented player. I am sure Davis being the better pass protector is part of this but as bad as the Chicago Bears offense struggled all night, they could have certainly used another playmaker on the field.
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Montgomery’s ability to make an impact as a runner and a receiver could be incredibly valuable for this team. They severely lacked offensive playmakers on Thursday night and Montgomery is the kind of guy who can step up and make a play at any time. Simply put, as we go forward, David Montgomery must have a much larger role in this offense. If he continues to sit, the Chicago Bears will likely continue to struggle.