David Montgomery – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Fantasy football: Where to draft Detroit Lions RB David Montgomery

Analyzing Detroit Lions RB David Montgomery’s 2024 fantasy football ADP and where to target him in fantasy drafts.

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Detroit Lions RB David Montgomery has been a workhorse in his 5 NFL seasons, joining the league in 2019. Montgomery was taken in the 3rd round of the 2019 NFL Draft — out of Iowa State — selected 73rd overall by the Chicago Bears. He then joined the Lions at the start of the 2023 season and was often used as the team’s goal-line back. Below, we look at David Montgomery’s 2024 fantasy football average draft position (ADP) and where you should draft him.

Entering this upcoming season, look for him to take a step back in his development with a downtick in production. Ideally, he’ll still be a touchdown-dependent starting option for managers. The running back is intriguing in terms of fantasy value.

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David Montgomery’s ADP: 52.79

(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com; last updated at time of this publishing – ADPs continually change as more drafts occur)

Montgomery’s 52.79 ADP in redraft leagues puts him in the 5th to 7th round depending on the size of the league. His ADP ranks 4th on the Lions, behind WR Amon-Ra St. Brown (6.66, 5th overall), RB Jahmyr Gibbs (15.92, 12th) and TE Sam LaPorta (34.03, 33rd).

Among running backs, Montgomery’s ADP puts him 19th at the position, behind Arizona’s of James Conner (52.76), Houston’s Joe Mixon (40.59), Buffalo’s James Cook (40.30) and New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara (36.53). New England’s Rhamondre Stevenson (56.59) and De’Andre Swift (61.94) are 20th and 21st respectively.

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David Montgomery’s 2023-24 stats

Games: 14

Carries | rushing yards: 219 | 1,015

Rushing touchdowns: 13

Receptions | receiving yards: 16 | 117

Receiving touchdowns: 0

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Where should you draft Montgomery?

Montgomery’s fantasy value might take a hit in 2024. He finished last season as the 9th-best fantasy back, the second time he’s been among the top 10 in the NFL. In each season he’s played since 2019, he’s finished within the top 22.

Montgomery is the starter on the depth chart, but he’s going to face added pressure from 2nd-year back Gibbs, who is typically being taken in the late 1st or early 2nd round.

Montgomery changed from being a receiving back in Chicago, having notched over 40 receptions in 2 of his 4 seasons, to being the main power back and the go-to goal-line option in Detroit. That means he’s very touchdown-dependent, getting into the end zone a career-best 13 times in 2023.

Montgomery should see 150-plus carries and 700-plus rushing yards. However, his pass-catching and touchdowns may both see a hit with the increased involvement of Gibbs. Montgomery is rightfully being drafted in the 5th round, which is acceptable in standard leagues. In PPR formats, let him drop to the 6th round before snagging the 27-year-old back.

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Vikings snubbed in PFF’s perfect NFC North team selections

In somewhat of a surprise, the Minnesota Vikings were completely left out of PFF’s perfect NFC north team.

We’ve officially entered summer, which means we’re right at the tail end of the NFL’s dead period. Training camps will be starting soon, and before you know it, we’ll have some real football to talk about. Pre-season football, roster cut-down day, and free agent signings from said cut-downs will all lead up to the first kickoff of the 2024 NFL season.

But we’re not there yet, so we’re still in the preview—and in this case, hypothetical—phase of the offseason. With that in mind, the team at PFF has been going division-by-division and building their “perfect” team out of units from the teams in each division.

For their perfect teams, the PFF crew has chosen to take a “room by room” approach, choosing one unit as a whole rather than selecting individual players. The Minnesota Vikings are noticeably absent from the selection process for their NFC North team.

It makes sense that PFF wouldn’t take the Vikings quarterback position, instead opting for Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers. Given the Vikings’ running woes last season, it also makes sense not to take their running backs—even with the addition of Aaron Jones—and indeed, PFF opted to take the Detroit Lions’ room and their 1-2 punch of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.

Things may get a little surprising with PFF’s choice of a wide receiver room. Rather than taking the tandem of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, they opted to go with the crew the Chicago Bears have built with the additions of Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze to pair with D.J. Moore. You can’t help but think the uncertainty Minnesota has at the WR3 was the determining factor there.

Rounding out PFF’s perfect NFC North team, they chose the Lions offensive and defensive lines, the Bears linebackers, and the Packers secondary units, leaving the Vikings completely unrepresented.

Jahymr Gibbs rookie season film review

Jahymr Gibbs rookie season film review from Lions Wire’s Russell Brown reveals a dynamic building block for the Detroit Lions offense

When the Detroit Lions were on the clock with the 6th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, they made a surprising move to trade down. This gave them the 12th overall pick and the 34th overall pick that they used to select tight end Sam LaPorta. However, they surprised everyone by selecting running back Jahmyr Gibbs out of Alabama with the 12th overall pick.

Some called it careless, and others called it clueless. It’s only been one season, but the tune towards the Jahmyr Gibbs selection has changed. It’s changed so much that some would call them geniuses.

After 15 games played as a rookie, Gibbs compiled 945 rushing yards on 182 carries and this led to 10 rushing touchdowns. Additionally, Gibbs was able to record 52 receptions for 316 yards and a touchdown.

It’s been evident that the Lions have wanted a split backfield under Dan Campbell and while they feed David Montgomery plenty of carries, that doesn’t change the way Gibbs can impact a game. Let’s dive into some film to review the rookie season from Gibbs and how impactful he really is for the Detroit Lions offense.

Now it’s extremely difficult to pick which plays to highlight from Gibbs’ first season in the NFL. That said, I picked 3 plays through my summer re-watch on his film to highlight for this article.

The first play I want to highlight is from week 16 against the Minnesota Vikings. For Detroit, they come out with their ’11’ personnel (one running back and one tight end), but they’re aligned with a condensed set on both sides of the formation.

Prior to the snap, Jared Goff sends Kalif Raymond on an exit motion to the left of the formation. Post-snap, Amon-Ra St. Brown runs underneath the line of scrimmage (LOS) and as you can see Vikings safety Harrison Smith is aligned in man coverage and goes into a full-out sprint in the same direction as St. Brown.

While this play looks like it could lead to a potential play-action pass with St. Brown spilling out to the flats, this play is a designed run. With a great combo block between Frank Ragnow and Graham Glasgow on the right side, there’s also a good kick out by Penei Sewell. As Gibbs gets the football, he follows his blockers and while he slightly hesitates, it looks like he has nowhere to go but that’s all by design.

Gibbs shows his ability to start and stop while being able to run through initial contact. The burst to get the edge and upfield gets put on display and all of this contributes to him scoring one of his two touchdowns from this game.

The next play I want to highlight is certainly a tip of the hat to the Lions offensive line. For starters, we all need to give kudos to Frank Ragnow for his ability to peel off his combo block and pick up the blitzing inside linebacker. As you can see, his body may be positioned full to the right but his head is inside and all eyes are on that linebacker.

Next, look at Penei Sewell going toe-to-toe with Joey Bosa on the right side. While Bosa gets turned around, this gives a slight opening for Gibbs and look at how explosive he is once he makes his way through the hole.

While this run is credited to excellent blocking, it’s also impressive to see Gibbs play with little hesitation on this run. As I mentioned, he puts his explosiveness and speed on display and it’s the type of play that helps set the tone.

This is one of those runs where the defense gets back to their huddle and each player has an internal conversation that they’ve got to buckle up or they’re in for a long day. Unfortunately for the Chargers, it was a long day as they gave up 200 rushing yards, 41 points and over 530 total yards.

Lastly, I want to look at how Gibbs can be a mismatch machine. For starters, if he gets a linebacker aligned over the top of him, there’s a good chance he’ll find a way to get open. He may only beat that linebacker by one step, but if he gets open, that’s all that matters.

Looking at the play above, the Lions come out with a trips right formation. Out of the backfield, you’ll see Gibbs run a speed out against the linebacker. With how shifty and explosive he can be, you’ll notice the linebacker get flat-footed and stop in preparation of Gibbs breaking the route off inside.

This gives Gibbs plenty of separation and Goff delivers a good ball to him for the first down. Even though he only averaged 2.43 yards per carry in this game, Gibbs did have 7 receptions for 39 yards in this game.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was a strong rookie season for Jahmyr Gibbs, and it appears that he could take an even bigger step this season. While he does split backfield duties with David Montgomery, the play making ability from Gibbs is electric. That showed once he started to get settled into the Lions offense and into the NFL. From week 7 through week 17, he recorded 766 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.

During the Lions playoff run, he scored in every single game and averaged 4.97 yards per carry. According to Player Profiler, Gibbs had a 8.2% breakaway run rate last season and that was second best in the NFL. Meanwhile, he evaded 56 tackles last season (3.7 per game) and that was ranked 13th in the NFL.

Whether you’re for or against taking a running back in the first round, one thing is for sure, Jahmyr Gibbs looks worthy of being selected there. He’s a difference maker with the football in his hands and it feels like he can score at any moment. Look for him to take more than just a step forward this season.

Several Lions reap contract rewards on the 5th day of the league year

Several Detroit Lions reap contract rewards on the 5th day of the league year as written into their deals

The fifth day of the new NFL league year is always a busy one for contracts. Many contracts are written in with stipulations and contingencies that kick in on the fifth day, which happens to be Monday, March 18th this year.

Detroit had a few contract options kick in on Monday. Most notable is a $5 million roster bonus paid to quarterback Jared Goff. This was set in the contract; it’s not any new or unexpected monies going to Goff.

Another $500,000 went to left tackle Taylor Decker as a roster bonus. Technically, Decker’s bonus was on the third day of the new league year.

Two other players had their 2024 salaries guaranteed as well. Running back David Montgomery and freshly acquired cornerback Carlton Davis now have fully guaranteed salaries in 2024. Note that the recently reported reworking of Davis’ contract might alter that; we don’t yet have the exact details of the new contract.

All contract info provided by Spotrac.

Bears agree to sign RB D’Andre Swift to a big contract

Bears agree to sign ex-Lions RB D’Andre Swift to a big contract as free agency starts

One of the first moves reported out of the NFL’s free agent tampering period is one that is sure to raise some eyebrows in Detroit.

Reports indicate former Lions running back D’Andre Swift agreed to a free agent deal with the Chicago Bears. While the deal cannot be finalized before Wednesday, the money being talked about is big.

The reported numbers for Swift, who played 2023 with the Philadelphia Eagles, are $24 million over three years. More importantly, Chicago will give Swift $15.3 million guaranteed at signing.

That’s more than the Lions are paying former Bears RB David Montgomery, who signed with Detroit last year. The Lions signed Montgomery to a 3-year, $18 million deal last offseason with $11 million guaranteed.

While different styles of runners, Montgomery was more efficiently productive in his first year in Detroit than Swift ever was, and also outperformed Swift with the Eagles in 2023.

Swift: 229 carries, 1049 yards, 5 TDs

Montgomery: 219 carries, 1015 yards, 13 TDs

Bears fans who chastised Swift for being soft and overhyped during his time in Detroit now find the shoe on the other foot.

Every NFL team’s rushing leader from the 2023 regular season

Here is every team’s leading rusher from the 2023 campaign

A Carolina Panther led the entire NFL in rushing this past season!

Oh, wait . . . our apologies . . .

A former Carolina Panther led the entire NFL in rushing this past season! So, congratulations to Christian McCaffrey, who is also just days away from playing on the game’s biggest stage.

Now, as we continue to put a bow on the year, let’s look back at each team’s leading rusher from the 2023 regular season.

Why Lions OC Ben Johnson staying put could shake up the whole NFC in 2024

The Detroit Lions got a huge bit of great news when OC Ben Johnson decided to stay put. That’s bad news for the rest of the NFL.

The Detroit Lions, who saw their 2023 season end in heartbreaking fashion with a 34-31 divisional round loss to the San Francisco 49ers in which they led 24+7 at the end of the first half, got some very good news to cool that particular burn.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who has been of serious interest as a head coach for multiple NFL teams over the last two seasons, is staying put.

#Lions OC Ben Johnson informed the #Seahawks and #Commanders that he’s staying in Detroit, per sources.

Johnson is still only 37 and will be a hot head coaching candidate again next year. But first, he wants to take another shot at bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Detroit. pic.twitter.com/lPg2Po33sx

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 30, 2024

In 2023, the Lions ranked fifth in the NFL in Offensive DVOA (seventh passing, fourth rushing), up from seventh overall in 2022, and 29th in 2021. Johnson took over in 2022, so that tells you a lot.

Under Johnson in 2023, quarterback Jared Goff had his best season to date, completing 484 of 786 passes for a league-high 5,411 yards, 34 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 98.7. Running backs David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 2,287 yards and 28 rushing touchdowns on 469 carries. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta caught 107 passes on 147 targets for 1,065 yards and 11 touchdowns, and the receiver corps of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond, and the two backs as pass-catchers were as dynamic as any group in the league at times.

Factor in an offensive line that may have the NFL’s best right tackle in Penei Sewell and the NFL’s best center in Frank Ragnow, and it’s easy to see why Johnson wanted to come back for one more season and maybe win a Super Bowl this time around.

The Lions’ offense has been a fascinating study all season long, and here are some of the hallmarks that Johnson and his guys can expand on when next season comes around.

Breaking down the PFF grades from Lions appearance in NFC Championship game

Breaking down the best and worst PFF grades from Lions appearance in NFC Championship game

PFF grades are coming to an end for the 2023 season as the Lions were not able to complete their magical run. They blew a 17-point lead to the San Frcnisco 49ers and are now in position of the 29th pick in the draft. Meanwhile, he 49ers are packing their bags for Las Vegas to faceoff against the Chiefs.

A Chiefs team that these same Lions beat in week one, can’t forget that one.

As for the PFF grades, this Lions team played well and fought to the very last second. Some played and showed up much better than others, these grades will make it easy to find those players.

Here are the PFF grades from the Lions NFC Championship appearance.

Dan Campbell’s fourth-down decisions aren’t why the Lions lost to the 49ers

Dan Campbell made two big fourth-down decisions against the 49ers. But the analytics aren’t why the Lions lost the NFC Championship game.

NFL broadcasters talk about “analytics” all the time without understanding what that word means at any level. Generally, it’s done in a dismissive tone and with a sense of disappointment in how the game has changed — i.e., the nerds have taken over, and football is worse for it.

Not that it matters, but NFL coaches have employed analytical thinking in their in-game decision-making processes for decades. Coaches may describe it as “going with my gut,” but they also use probability and tendency to try and make the best choices possible.

In the case of Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell and his team’s 34-31 NFC Championship loss to the San Francisco 49ers, it’s Campbell who will feel the sting of the analytical naysayers all offseason long. The Lions had a 24-7 halftime lead, which they proceeded to blow in the second half. Now, the Lions’ improbable Super Bowl journey is nothing but a broken dream.

Two play calls are front of mind for most who are looking to assign blame for Detroit’s collapse. With 7:03 left in the third quarter, the Lions had the ball at the San Francisco 28-yard line. Instead of having kicker Michael Badgley attempt a 46-yard field goal to go up 27-10, the Lions went for it. Jared Goff attempted a 12-yard curl route to receiver Josh Reynolds, but Goff was pressured and threw the ball short.

And with 7:38 left in the game, the Lions had the ball at the San Francisco 30-yard line. This time, the decision instead of a 48-yard field goal try was to have Goff hit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown on a deep crosser. Again, Goff was hurried, and again, the play didn’t work.

Now, most models favored going for it in those situations, or at least called it a relative push.

pic.twitter.com/M8n5RKqtuQ

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) January 29, 2024

pic.twitter.com/HE3FTevFaw

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) January 29, 2024

“I just felt really good about us converting and getting our momentum and not letting them play long ball,” Campbell said after the game. “They were bleeding the clock out. That’s what they do. And I wanted to get the upper hand back. And it’s easy hindsight, and I get it. I get that. But I don’t regret those decisions. And that’s hard. It’s hard because we didn’t come through. It wasn’t able to work out, but I don’t, I don’t. And I understand the scrutiny I’ll get. That’s part of the gig, man. But [it] just didn’t work out.”

My issue is not at all with the decision to go for it on those two plays. Badgley was an afterthought at kicker – he wasn’t active until Week 14 — and had attempted just one field goal of 40 or more yards this season. He made it in Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys, but let’s stop pretending that those field goals would have been automatic. And outdoors, Badgley hadn’t made a field goal of 40 or more yards since the 2020 season.

And for the season, the Lions had converted 21 of 40 fourth-down attempts. This is who Campbell is, and this is who the Lions are.

“I loved them,” Goff said of the fourth-down decisions. “We’ve got to convert.”

My issue is with the play calls the Lions chose in those circumstances. Detroit’s run game had been dragging Steve Wilks’ 49ers defense up and down the field. For the game, Detroit ran the ball 29 times for 182 yards (a 6.3-yard average) and three touchdowns. On both of those conversion attempts, the 49ers’ desire to get after Goff would have left open gaps for Detroit’s running backs. David Montgomery had explosive running plays in this game of 14, 15 and 16 yards, which is about as consistent as you can get. This 16-yard run with 9:15 left in the game would have been pretty nifty a couple of minutes later.

On each of those runs, Goff was under center. Goff has been the NFL’s best under-center play-action passer this season, and by far the most prolific. Why would both of those conversion attempts have Goff in pistol, and the fourth-quarter attempt with Goff in empty? At least give the 49ers’ defense the possibility of a run in those situations.

So, before we chalk this all up to the alleged evils of analytics in football, we should consider that Campbell’s gambles weren’t wrong at all. It was the play calls that killed his team.