The Bears made David Montgomery their lead running back after drafting him in the third round last year, but he didn’t have the desired impact on the offense.
Montgomery averaged 3.67 yards on 242 carries, which was the lowest mark of any back in the league with 200 carries outside of the Jets’ Le’Veon Bell. Very little worked offensively for the Bears last year, so there were contributing factors to Montgomery’s sluggish production but that’s not where Montgomery is focused.
Montgomery vowed that he’s “going to be better this year for this team” and thinks having some experience under his belt will help him accomplish that.
“An entire year of me being in an offense,” Montgomery said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “Me not being solely a complete rookie and me going in with the unknown that, ‘I don’t know any of the offense,’ or me going in with the unknown that I don’t know if I’ll play or not. [Or] me going with the unknown of not knowing if I will get carries or not, or worrying about all the small stuff that doesn’t even matter anymore. No, I can really get to playing football now because I’m a year in and I’m a lot more confident. I’m ready to go have fun now.”
A better run game would help whoever the Bears put at quarterback this fall and the chances of getting one will have a lot to do with Montgomery making good on his vow.