Bears Plan Big for David Montgomery Next Year
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Bears obviously failed to run the ball effectively this season, yet no one is pointing a finger of blame at rookie running back David Montgomery.
It's been more a combination of offensive line breakdowns, inability to commit to the run by coaches, schematic problems and game situations dictating more passes when the Bears trailed.
"In every game you can always see the violence that he runs with," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "He breaks extra tackles. (Pass) Protection-wise, picking things up.
"So I like his growth this year. We talked about it, his being able to take it to the next level next year will be realy important for us as a unit. I know he's going to be extremely focused."
Montgomery goes into Sunday's finale with the Vikings with 776 yards on 219 attempts, only 3.5 yards a carry.
The Bears had initially presented this year's plan for the ground game as being a committee approach, but they never did use Mike Davis to any extent before releasing him to ensure they would get a compensatory fourth-round draft pick next spring. Instead, Montgomery became the focale point and has 60.6 percent of the team's 361 rushing attempts, a total which includes Mitchell Trubisky's scrambles and runs by wide receivers.
Next year coach Matt Nagy wants to get better use from Montgomery in the passing game. When the Bears were surveying the running back group at the combine, Nagy has made it clear a back who could be involved as a receiver and blocker was critical. Yet Montgomery has been used only about as much as a receiver as Jordan Howard was.
Montgomery has only 25 catches for 185 yards.
"Just a combination of us being able to use him–whether it's spreading him out if we see a mismatch with a particular defender–and then him also getting better at some routes," Nagy said. "I like where he's at in regards to route running.
"It's just trying to figure out again, it will all go back to the identity of this offense and getting that to happen way earlier in the season than it happened this year."
Montgomery's work ethic has been legendary in college and even now in the NFL, and Nagy expects he'll be at Halas Hall all the time in the offseason.
"He'll probably take a week or two off just to get away and then he'll be one of those guys," Nagy said. "The other part of it too for him is he won't be a rookie anymore—sometimes it's hard for these young guys, they come in as rookies and they don't want to step on people's toes. They just go about their business.
"Being his second year, now I'll be curious to see how much of a leader he becomes."
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