Former Chicago Bear calls 2025 NFL season 'year of the reckoning'

Running back David Montgomery once said that he left the Chicago Bears because he was sick of losing. Now he's got a strong message for the rest of the league.

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It's never fun for NFL fans to watch a beloved player willingly sign with a division rival, but it's hard to blame David Montgomery for ditching the Chicago Bears for the Detroit Lions in 2023. All the Bears had ever done while Montgomery was on the roster was lose, and he joined the Lions just as they hit their stride, though there doesn't appear to be bad blood between the player and his former team as he praised the Bears for hiring Ben Johnson back in February.

Montgomery got his first taste of postseason success immediately after joining Detroit, running all the way to the NFC Championship in 2023. Now, Montgomery wants more. At the start of Detroit's training camp, Montgomery announced that simply getting close to a Super Bowl title is no longer enough for him and the 2025 NFL season will be the 'year of the reckoning'.

"[Being close is] not what you want to be known for, especially when you know you've got the guys you've got on this team. You want to finish it, so this is the year for us. The year of the reckoning and the year that we choose that we need to finish."

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Big words from a powerful runner, but Montgomery and the rest of the Lions will be facing some serious headwinds in their quest for the franchise's first Super Bowl. The Lions are reeling from a brain drain in its coaching staff: former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn accepted a head coaching job for the New York Jets, while offensive mastermind Ben Johnson joined the Bears, a double-whammy for Detroit that saw their own staff get weaker while a division rival simultaneously got stronger.

The loss of Johnson is what stings the most for Detroit and stands as arguably the biggest stumbling block on their way to a third consecutive division title. Detroit's identity over the last two years was built on an explosive juggernaut of an offense. An offense that was created and called by Ben Johnson, who will now be attempting to replicate that for one of Detroit's biggest rivals.

Before Montgomery and the Lions can worry about getting back to the NFC Championship game and beyond, they must worry first about whether they will even be the best team in the division anymore. The NFC North was already loaded with playoff teams, and the emergence of Chicago as yet another contender will only make the road longer.

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