The 2020 Fantasy Football Impact of Bears RB David Montgomery. The Counselor dives into the facts with Faiz Sports talk host and Bears analyst.
Joseph Robert:
Welcome to the show, everybody. Joseph Robert, the Fantasy Football Counselor. If you’re watching on YouTube, you know what this episode’s about. I’m wearing a Bears hat. The Chicago Bears and David Montgomery’s Fantasy Football value 2020. I’ve got a special guest here, Faizan on the show. I’m going to introduce you to him. He’s a Bears analyst. He’s got a sports YouTube channel, the link is there below. But he’s actually a Bears fan and an analyst, he knows them pretty much inside out. So I’ve got him on the show. Welcome to the show!
Faizan:
Hey, man! Thanks for having me. Yeah, I read everything all about the Bears, anything about the Bears, I’m the guy for you, man. So I’m happy to be on and talk some Bears football.
Joseph Robert:
I appreciate it. So today, we’re focusing on David Montgomery’s fantasy value. So all you guys on YouTube, I know I look ridiculous here because I never wear my hat facing forward, it’s always backward, so I’m going to go ahead and switch that around here. It looks a little bit better backward, but I had a Bears hat here on the wall. I had to wear it for this episode. So, it’s kind of a weird, bubbly hat, but anyway, let’s talk about David Montgomery because I’m a big fan of him as a person. I was high on him last year. I started seeing him come off Fantasy Football drafts as early as the second round because people saw some pre-season action. We saw some upside, and then when the season started, I was very disappointed. So were a lot of fantasy fans.
My view, he was part of a three-headed monster. Mind you, I had him with Derrick Henry in a bunch of drafts. A couple of times, I paired him up with Zeke. I know I had David Johnson, he kind of busted on me. But he’s pretty much paired up with Derrick Henrys and the Zekes of the world, in my three-headed monster scheme there. I also had Josh Jacobs in there. So my master plan is at the beginning of the draft was to go three-headed monster, and David Montgomery was a part of a lot of my teams last year. He really screwed me, man, I’m not going to lie.
I mean, David Montgomery, 889 yards, 242 attempts. But I kept seeing Tarik Cohen. They love Tarik Cohen. I don’t understand this fascination and this obsession with Tarik Cohen. I don’t care what anybody says. He’s a pass-catching scatback that can’t catch the ball. Led the team in drops last year. He just sucks. 64 attempts, yet he’s still… Montgomery couldn’t get in the groove. You’d see Montgomery come onto the field, he’d run. A pretty good runner, catch the ball for a bunch of yards, and then they’d pull him out and they’d bring Tarik Cohen. So what is your thought process kind of overview on the David Montgomery and Tarik Cohen situation from last year? Let’s talk about this first.
Faizan:
Let me just start off by saying this. David Montgomery from the time the Bears drafted him was set up to fail. So to your point about Tarik Cohen, absolutely. Matt Nagy loves Tarik Cohen, he loves having pass-catching backs, and that’s not to say David Montgomery can’t catch the ball. [crosstalk 00:02:50] He actually can. He still had 25 receptions I believe, for 185 yards. So he has that ability, but they love Tarik Cohen, and so they love using him and that takes away from David Montgomery. I haven’t even gotten to the fact that he doesn’t get the consistent attempts as he did in the second half of the year. But I think it’s just Matt Nagy’s fascination with Tarik Cohen-
Joseph Robert:
I don’t get it.
Faizan:
… and the fact that he’s a gadget guy, but to your point, I completely agree. I was on my channel complaining all year that they just, they’ve used Tarik Cohen way too much.
Joseph Robert:
Way too much. He’s not that good, and he’s an… I mean, I could be wrong, but is he one of those arrogant guys, chip on his shoulder? I guess he grew up being a really short dude so he probably has this chip on his shoulder. Am I wrong to say that, or is he kind of cocky?
Faizan:
I mean, Tarik Cohen, everyone knows the fact that he’s short, the Napoleon Syndrome if you will-
Joseph Robert:
Small Man Syndrome is what they call it, yeah.
Faizan:
Yeah, you have that. But the thing with Tarik Cohen, and I think I know the fascination behind him is the Bears’ coaching staff has seen him obviously break off a couple of plays. We’re used to the highlight reel that was Devon Hester and so, they always are looking for that one splash play, the touchdown. And it doesn’t happen all that often, but they chase it instead of grinding it out with your power back and do-it-all back in David Montgomery. So I think they just tried to hit gold way too many times and come up short.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, it’s very, very disappointing, and this is one of the reasons I want to stay away from David Montgomery. I want to draft him. I think he’s a big sleeper this year. I’ve got to go back here. You mentioned he was set up to fail. Why is that? Was it because again the fascination and the love for Tarik Cohen? Is that what you mean?
Faizan:
Well, the reason I say he was set up to fail was when the Bears drafted him, they actually traded the pick two draft, David Montgomery. So again, Ryan Pace, the GM of the Bears, he’s the type of general manager when he likes a guy, he goes after him. Everybody knows he traded up for Mitchell Trubisky but we won’t get into that. And so, when he likes somebody, he goes after them. But then when you go after somebody, you got to set him up to succeed. The offensive line was awful last year. Run blocking was terrible all year. David Montgomery averaged 2.3 yards per carry.
Joseph Robert:
3.7 I got here, yeah.
Faizan:
Yeah, 3.7 yards per carry. Josh Jacobs had the same attempts, I believe 242.
Joseph Robert:
Wow.
Faizan:
And he had had almost 1100 yards. So in the same attempts, Josh Jacobs gets way more because he averaged what? 4.8 yards per carry. Now, I like Josh Jacobs. People will say Josh Jacobs was better. I obviously watch the Bears up close and a lot, David Montgomery makes holes when there are no holes. The fact that he was able to even average 3.7 is impressive as it is because of how bad the offensive line was. So, back to the point of why they set him up to fail was the offensive line was not good. Matt Nagy was inconsistent with using him. He never got into a rhythm, and it was just kind of, “Okay, well, Mitch isn’t playing well? Let’s try to feed David Montgomery. Oh, you know what? I don’t know about that.” So the inconsistencies with his attempts, the inconsistencies with the offensive line, I think all of that contributed to it.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, that was a disaster to watch as a fantasy fan, because again, I had him in a lot of my leagues and I felt I thought he was going to be the guy. I mean, you see how his work ethic is good, he’s focused, you saw the off-season training, the pre-season, all that stuff. David Montgomery does look like the real deal. He catches better than Tarik Cohen, so I don’t get why he’s not on the field. Tarik Cohen should be there as an accessory if David goes off for a big run which we are yet to see. I was looking for that big breakout run that just, oh, just never really happened for him. You know?
I mean, he’s just come in, Tarik’s just come in just as a change of pace or for David to catch his breath. But I really dislike Nagy, I just don’t know what it is. He almost out coaches himself. I don’t understand what it is, man. What is the fascination with this? Like he kind of said, right?
Faizan:
Yeah.
Joseph Robert:
He just loves Tarik Cohen, and there’s nothing we can do about it as fantasy owners.
Faizan:
Yeah, I think with Nagy, the thing is, he’s an offensive coach, okay? And the offensive coaches, they like passing the football more than they do like rushing football. And we saw in Kansas City, it was under Andy Reid the air attack. So I don’t think Matt Nagy’s ever going to be the coach that rushes the football more so than he passes it unless he absolutely needs to, so his first go-to is always going to be to depend on the passing game, which obviously hurts David Montgomery. But I do think with how bad last season was for the Bears coming off of a 12-4 year and then going 8-8, I think Nagy knows now, he doesn’t’ have the type of job security and leverage that he once did.
Joseph Robert:
Right.
Faizan:
And so now it’s okay, you better be real careful here because if things go south, something could happen to him. So I think he’s going to depend on the run game a little bit more, I’m not going to say completely. But a little bit more than he did last season.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, I would imagine he’s got to be on a short leash after that. I mean, it was just very… Again, I’m not a Bears fan. I didn’t go to all the games, and I try to watch a lot, but again, I think he was getting a lot of criticism for not using Montgomery, am I correct?
Faizan:
Oh, absolutely.
Joseph Robert:
On the first
Faizan:
The biggest issue with Matt Nagy was his play-calling, which is funny because that’s what he was hired to do in Chicago is be a brilliant play-caller. But from the 2018 season, when the Bears went 12-4 to last season, the big difference was the play calling. And it was something that he got absolutely grilled for, and he knows it. He knows it now. So going into this season, this is why I’m saying I don’t think he will be as dramatic with his play calling. He might dial it back.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, I don’t know, man. Like I said, as a fantasy fan, I have never been so… I was fuming inside because again, Montgomery had these amazing plays and then there you’d see him running off. I’m like, “Dude, keep him on the field!” And you’d see guys like Zeke and Saquon and CMC. Their teams believe in them, and the lack of faith in your running back, it absolutely destroys me. When you’ve got a guy with the work ethic, the strength and he can break tackles, David Montgomery’s an absolute beast. And again, I’m just so disappointed in that. Let’s talk about 2020 projection here. You kind of touched on it, so a little bit more production out of Montgomery. But how much more? He’ll definitely crack 1000, I feel that.
Six touchdowns, I want to see more than six rushing touchdowns. Do you see Tarik Cohen around the goal line again, stealing some receiving touchdowns there?
Faizan:
I don’t see Tarik Cohen stealing any goal-line work. I think David Montgomery’s going to be the goal-line back. But going into 2020, a little optimism I can share though is the offensive line help. So the Bears did pick up an offensive lineman in free agency, Germain Ifedi from the Seattle Seahawks. Now, he’s not a fantastic… and it doesn’t mean the O-line’s fixed. But with the departure of Kyle Long, he retired, the Bears do need to address the offensive line. So in the draft, I absolutely expect them to address that, so that’s going to help. And so, right off the bat, that’s going to help the situation more than it did last season. And look, keep in mind Montgomery averaged 3.7 yards per carry. There’s no way I think he does that again next year, so even putting him at four and a half yards per carry, that easily gets him over 1000.
I’m going to just stay somewhere between 1000 and 1100, and as far as the rushing touchdowns, I think six was even good last year for him. But I think definitely he’s going to get more goal-line work, so I’m guessing it’s going to be more than six touchdowns.
Joseph Robert:
Again, I’m bringing you guys on just to focus on one type of guy. I do want to talk about Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles. We’ll save that to another episode. Again, back to David Montgomery, when you look at Fantasy Football impact, I’m looking at possibly drafting. It depends on where ADP is going to fall, we don’t know. As of right now, we don’t know. We’re going to see what happens after the draft. They’re going to address the O-line like you said in the draft, right? You’re going to see that?
Faizan:
Yep, yep.
Joseph Robert:
Okay, so they’re going to address the O-line. That’s going to be improved. That’s only going to help. Are they going to get another wide receiver? Are they sold on their wide receiving core now do you think?
Faizan:
Well, if they don’t, they have a number one receiver in Allen Robinson. I think they know they have a number two receiver in Anthony Miller, but yes, I do expect him to still draft a number three receiver because really, other than Allen Robinson, you don’t have any guaranteed commodities. Anthony Miller I mentioned, but again, he was inconsistent and he didn’t really do anything the first half of last season, and behind him he’s got guys like Riley Ridley, Javon Wims. These guys are young, they’re inconsistent, and they’re unproven, so I do expect them to draft another receiver. They need a guy who can really be a burner for them. They lost Taylor Gabriel. They need speed on that side. So I do expect them to draft a receiver in the NFL Draft.
Joseph Robert:
I’m excited to watch and see what happens, and then I don’t think Mitch’s job… He’s on a short leash as well now.
Faizan:
Very short leash.
Joseph Robert:
We saw him come off the field last year a little bit. I thought maybe that was the end of Mitch. But yeah man, again, very, very hard to watch when you’re looking at David Montgomery last year, very high expectations in fantasy. I remember Nagy coming on and saying, “If you’re a fantasy fan, I know how you feel, but he’s not going to be a workhorse right off the bat.” And then he just never ended up being the workhorse. He was such a lackluster, anti-climactic performance by David Montgomery. And it was very hard to watch, especially when you’re in like third and two down type situations and whatever, and he’s running the ball with Tarik Cohen. I mean, it just blew my mind!
And he’d get negative yards, obviously. And he did it so many times where Tarik would run it third and two or whatever it was, second and two, I don’t know. It was just short goal line situation where they need the first down, and he’s running it with Tarik Cohen. Tarik would always get negative yards. I’m like, “What are you doing?” I’m not even a Bears fan, but as a fantasy fan owning David Montgomery, it was so hard to watch. It really was.
Faizan:
Not even just the goal line. It was even anywhere on the field, you’d be on a third and a two, you’d be in a third and three, and they’d do these sweeps to the left and you’re going the long way. And I’m like, “Just run it up the middle with David Montgomery, what are you doing, Matt Nagy?” And that’s part of the criticism that I mentioned earlier, is the simple calls were always there and Matt Nagy too cute. That was his big criticism last year, is he got too cute with the play-calling instead of doing what works, the bread and butter plays. He got away from that, and it cost him, and obviously we saw that.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, it was an absolute disaster, so hopefully, 2020 projection, be cautious with Montgomery. Again, I’ve got to watch the NFL Draft, see what they do, see what moves they make and if there is a season this year, which I think there will be, we’re going to have to watch training camp and maybe if there is a pre-season, a bit of pre-season, see what happens here. But Tarik Cohen, what does look promising is that only 64 rushing attempts compared to 242. I don’t think you should get any rushing attempts if you ask me. I really don’t think. I’ll give him one or two just to be nice through the season. But 64, I hope that goes the other way because now we got a guy that runs the ball 300 times, potentially. Right? If you take that away from Tarik Cohen, then you’re up to Zeke Elliott type attempts around 300. Now you’re over 1000 rushing yards, you get an improved O-line, your yards per carry go up, and you get more goal-line work.
So now you’re looking at 1200-yard rushing season, 10-12 touchdowns, 4.5 yards per carry, and you’ve got yourself a running back and at RB1 on your team if everything falls into place. There you go.
Faizan:
Absolutely. And just to piggyback off that point, literally, if David Montgomery doesn’t get anymore attempts next season and he just stays around the 240 that he does and his yards per carry go up to 4.5, that’s 1100 rushing yards.
Joseph Robert:
Right.
Faizan:
If they go up to 5 yards per carry, that’s 1200 right there. So you don’t even need more rushing attempts, you just need him to have better yards per carry, and that’s obviously going to be dependent on play calling and the offensive line, because I have no doubts about David Montgomery’s talent. He can absolutely do it.
Joseph Robert:
To fully analyze this again, do you think Nick Foles helps or doesn’t help David Montgomery if he were to come in, more than Mitch? Who do you think is better in regards to impacting David Montgomery as a quarterback? Foles or [crosstalk 00:15:28]?
Faizan:
I think Nick Foles would help a little bit more, only because I know that Nick Foles does not rush the football, and so there’s no threat of taking away carries from David Montgomery. Mitchell Trubisky is more athletic than him, so we’ve seen not just the scrambles, but designed runs as well that the Bears have used Mitch Trubisky in. So with Nick Foles, it’s more of a traditional offense under center, the I formation and just hand it off to David Montgomery. So I do think Nick Foles does help David Montgomery’s situation a little bit more. But to me, it’s essentially negligible. I’m not going to have that be the deciding factor of who’s going to be the quarterback. I’m still confident, but to your point, I do think Nick Foles helps a little bit.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, I don’t know if you heard this, but Mitch Trubisky tested positive for losing his job to Nick Foles. That’s my [crosstalk 00:16:20]-
Faizan:
I didn’t hear that, no.
Joseph Robert:
That’s my joke of the day.
Faizan:
Yeah.
Joseph Robert:
All right, were you going to add something to that?
Faizan:
Yeah, I was just going to say look, I don’t want to get into obviously the quarterback situation completely. We can do that in another episode, but all I will say is this: Regardless of who the quarterback is, the starting quarterback is for the Bears, I do think there will be a new focus on the running game, not just because they didn’t use it last year, but second year for David Montgomery, you’re going to address the offensive line, and I do think they will learn from their mistakes. So, I just think that there’s going to be a clear focus here a little bit more on the run game than there was last year, regardless of the quarterback situation.
Joseph Robert:
Right, yeah. Definitely a Fantasy Football sleeper, guys. David Montgomery, I think a lot of people will be sleeping on him due to last year. I’m not afraid to take risks. I like the talent, I just dislike Nagy. I mean, that’s kind of the main thing. But again, him being on a short leash, this could be good news for fantasy owners. Thank you. I appreciate you coming on. Can you tell everybody how to find you, shout out to your channel? Because a lot of people listening to audio as well.
Faizan:
Yeah, absolutely. So you guys can obviously subscribe to my YouTube channel, FaizSportstalk. That’s F-A-I-Zsportstalk, no space there. And then reach out to me on my Twitter and my Instagram handle. I have both my personal and my YouTube, Twitter, YouTube handle, or Instagram, it’s @FaizSportstalk and then for my Twitter, it’s my name, @FaizanQuereshi. So I have it linked in every video, so all you have to do, very simple. Just go to my channel, FaizSportstalk. In the description for any video, you guys can follow all of my social media handles. So that’s the best way to reach me on there.
Joseph Robert:
Thanks, Faizan. I appreciate it. Very good insight on the Bears. We’re going to have you on a little bit more talking about this, because again, I may be considering getting back into the same kind of situation I got last year. And I rarely, fool me once type thing. I don’t really fall back into that trap, but I really like David Montgomery, it’d be a shame if he does this two years in a row. And if he does, go back to this terrible performance because of Nagy, I’m going to let Nagy hear it on social media. So that’s just how it’s going to be.
Faizan:
I have no doubt about that. So, we’ll see what happens.
Joseph Robert:
Yeah, I’m going to make some noise. All right, thank you for being on, guys. Make sure you guys shoot him a follow, and make sure you guys follow the Impact Series below. I’ve got videos for every team, almost every player. I’m working through it right now, bringing in analysts. And again, leave a thumbs up and let me know below, do you trust Nagy and are you drafting David Montgomery? Leave it in the comments. Thanks for being here guys, and we’ll see you guys in the next video. Thank you.
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