Look Out Bears, Here Comes Montgomery

It would have anyway, after the humiliating 41-10 beating the Lions put on the Bears in Detroit and the 31-30 win they had at Soldier Field because of a missed extra point.

Now the David Montgomery factor is involved and GM Ryan Poles realizes this.

The Lions and Bears game is labeled by NFL.com as one of the key "revenge games" to watch next season by NFL.com writer Adam Rank, and it's because Montgomery signed with the Lions and gets to face the Bears twice a season.

I would just kind of sum it up by saying players do have a choice," Poles told reporters. "I thought we communicated well. I thought we negotiated well. At the same time, you don't always know what's going on in the background, but I thought we did a good job, we were transparent, we were organized and it just, it didn't happen. I felt like it was really, really close, though."

Poles knows that the Bears will face a fired-up Montgomery twice this season.

"He definitely is going to run with a chip on his shoulder, so we'll be ready for that," Poles said. "But I communicated with him, too.

"Happy for him. He's a guy I've respected since he was at Iowa State, and I love the way he runs. So, it's all good."

No doubt Montgomery would have felt it was better if the Bears had been willing to keep him for over the $6 million a year he got from the Lions.

It does seem Montgomery's ability is understated, but not necessarily by the Bears.

The $6 million a year is not a number to be laughed at because only Miles Sanders got more among the free agents who were not franchised. Sanders got only $250,000 more a year to go to Carolina.

But Montgomery does get overlooked elsewhere, that's certain.

Spotrac.com did a list of every team's big add, big subtract and storyline for the offseason so far. For the Bears the storyline was "Eagles 2.0," which is quite the optimistic tag, almost a compliment. The add was 10 free agents at a total of $120 million guaranteed.

The subtract? Naturally you'd expect Montgomery.

No. It was the No. 1 pick, now the property of Carolina with DJ Moore and a basket of draft picks coming to Chicago.

No respect.

And it's likely to be the Bears Montgomery is trying to take it out on twice next fall.

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