Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune talks about David Montgomery‘s potential role in the new Bears offense.
The Bears thought Montgomery was more suited for the inside zone and run-pass option scheme [former HC Matt] Nagy desired, and they billed him as a better fit in the passing game. The biggest difference between Montgomery and Aaron Jones — the featured running back for the Packers, for whom [OC Luke] Getsy worked the last three seasons — is that Jones is more dynamic in the passing game.
But Montgomery’s vision and patience should lead to ample success in the outside zone scheme the Bears will lean on heavily in the ground game, with second-year running back Khalil Herbert surely playing a role as well.
I think there are a couple of things that are worth noting here.
- Although Montgomery is not as dynamic as Jones, it is worth noting that the Bears said that one of the reasons that they drafted Montgomery was because they believed that he had some ability to expand their passing game. They obviously thought that he could catch passes out of the backfield though they rarely used him that way in games. Perhaps Getsy will find that Montgomery has more talent in this area than expected and will use him in a way that the previous coaching staff for some reason did not.
- The Bears absolutely, positively must do a better job of running the ball this year. The key to success for them is going to always be the play action pass while playing outdoors in Chicago. I’ll give Nagy credit for recognizing this last year and doing his best to set the offense up to succeed in this manner. Unfortunately I’m not sure that he or his staff knew how to coach the running game well enough to make it work and that was part of his downfall.
In any case, hopefully the new staff will be better be able to execute a vision for the offense and for Montgomery that better fits his skill set this year.