Bears coach Matt Nagy’s wheels already turning with addition of David Montgomery

SHARE Bears coach Matt Nagy’s wheels already turning with addition of David Montgomery
626016266_e1556416810492.jpg

Iowa State running back David Montgomery (struggling for yardage against West Virginia as a freshman in 2016 when he gained 141 yards on 21 carries) rushed for 1,216 yards (4.7 avg.) and had 22 receptions for 157 yards as a junior last season. | David Purdy/Getty Images

Bears general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy downplayed what seems like an obvious storyline out of the NFL Draft: After trading running back Jordan Howard and drafting Iowa State running back David Montgomery, the Bears have the right pieces in place for quarterback Mitch Trubisky and Nagy’s offense to take a quantum leap in 2019.

If they’re right, the 5-11, 211-pound Montgomery will have the vision, patience, elusiveness, hands and versatility to excel in Nagy’s offense. He’ll be a threat out of the backfield Howard rarely was. He’ll be a three-down back who doesn’t tip Nagy’s offensive hand.

‘‘You feel great about it,’’ Nagy said after the Bears completed the draft Saturday. ‘‘But . . . to us as coaches, it’s more about the time than it is necessarily the players.

‘‘But any players you can get at every position, we’re going to try to get more and more competition and get better and better and figure out what our strengths are. You see the names, specifically of the players that are now on our offense, and there’s a lot of weapons. There’s a lot of guys who can do a lot of things with the ball.

‘‘So when you are a defensive coordinator and you need to focus on more than one or two or three people —  which I feel like we have the ability to do — that’s an advantage for us. So between now and the first game of the year, we’ve got to figure out how we want to do that.’’

Montgomery wasn’t particularly prolific in the passing game at Iowa State. He had 22 receptions for 157 yards and no touchdowns last season. In fact, he didn’t score a touchdown on any of his 71 receptions (for 582 yards) in three seasons with the Cyclones.

But Montgomery’s potential in the passing game figures to allow Nagy to attack and confuse defenses with multiple weapons more than he could do with Howard.

RELATED

Bears draft Georgia WR Riley Ridley — Calvin’s brother — in Round 4

Bears add fourth kicker and vow, ‘We’re gonna get this thing right’

‘‘It’s about mismatches,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘You take a guy out of the backfield . . . is it a safety [defending]? Is it a linebacker? Are they playing base defense vs. a guy that we think we can get an advantage in the pass game? Great. Are they gonna play nickel or dime and dare us to run the ball? Well, when you have guys who can play all three downs, it’s nice for the play-caller.’’

You almost can see Nagy’s mind working in anticipation of playing with what he hopes will be a new toy in 2019: a maturing offense headed by Trubisky that has enough options to put the same kind of heat on the opposition the Bears’ top-rated defense does.

Too soon for that? We’ll see. But the Bears were hoping to make a big jump in Year 2 of Nagy’s offense just based on experience. With Montgomery and receiver Riley Ridley, a fourth-round pick the Bears couldn’t resist, Pace has given Trubisky an even better chance to make it happen.

‘‘We’re always mindful of that,’’ Pace said. ‘‘The more weapons we can supply to the quarterback and to our coaches, the better.’’

As much as Nagy probably wants to tamp down expectations, he couldn’t avoid the obvious comparison between Montgomery and Kareem Hunt, the third-round pick who led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in the Andy Reid/Nagy offense  in 2017.

‘‘Yeah, there are some similarities, for sure,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘The size of them. You see how they run between the tackles. They are physical. They run angry — both of them. But he’s going to be his own person. He’s going to be David Montgomery, nobody else.’’

All things considered, that’ll work. In fact, that’s just what the Bears were looking for when they traded Howard: a back who runs like Hunt and acts like Montgomery.

The Latest
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.