Former NFL executive predicts monster rookie season from David Montgomery

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The NFL Draft has a funny way of letting running backs slip through the cracks, often leaving teams to find the most productive rookies in the middle rounds of the draft.

Former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt, who now writes for NFL.com, sees a similar case with Bears third-round pick David Montgomery.

Brandt envisions the Iowa State running back following in the footsteps of Alvin Kamara and Kareem Hunt en route to a breakout rookie season.

He projects Montgomery as the top rookie running back this season with 1,200 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

“The Bears paved the way for Montgomery to become a feature back by trading Jordan Howard to the Eagles before the draft,” Brandt wrote. “The Iowa State product rushed for 1,100-plus yards in each of the past two seasons, and if he slides right in and takes up Howard's old workload (270 touches in 2018), Montgomery should produce like crazy.”

The qualifier in Brandt’s analysis is that the Bears would give their rookie the same number of touches as they did for Jordan Howard, which is unclear at this point.

Montgomery is still learning the offense, and Ryan Pace didn’t give Mike Davis a two-year, $6 million to watch games from the sideline.

Matt Nagy is expected to take more of a running back by committee approach to start the season, but if Montgomery starts producing like the breakout candidate Brandt foresees, the Bears should keep putting the ball in his hands.

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