Arkush: Why Pace is confident newest Bear Montgomery will produce
Iowa State running back David Montgomery became the newest Chicago Bear on Friday night when the Bears traded up from pick No. 87 to 73 in the third round and the move was immediately met with rave reviews in most circles.
Of course no one could have thought Ryan Pace was going to get his first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft without making a big deal to get exactly the player he wanted. But back to the deal in a moment.
Almost every scouting service had Alabama's Josh Jacobs, Penn St.'s Miles Sanders and Montgomery as the top three running backs in this draft with most agreeing Montgomery is the most NFL ready.
Ask two of my favorite evaluators, Pro Football Weekly's own Greg Gabriel and Lance Zeierlein of the NFL Network who the closest on-field NFL comp is for Montgomery right now and both will tell you, Kareem Hunt.
At 5-foot-10, 222 pounds, Montgomery is the same height as Hunt and about 5 pounds bigger. He does not have elite speed or explosion, but he does have unique quickness and suddenness and is one of the most productive college backs in this draft.
His soft hands and excellent receiving skills and run after catch ability are what make him a special fit for Matt Nagy's offense.
One concern some scouts had is with 573 touches in the last two seasons Montgomery has had a heavy workload and has absorbed a fair amount of punishment, but he did miss just one game in three seasons with an arm injury.
One thing Bears fans will love about Montgomery is he apparently grew up in Cincinnati with his grandfather showing him film of Walter Payton.
When asked how he felt when he realized he was now a Chicago Bear Montgomery said, "I wasn't really surprised, I'm definitely grateful, blessed that that's what to they did to get picked, and chosen by the Bears.
"Coach Nagy and the staff, I didn't know that the Bears were going to trade up to get me.
"I thought they'd stay at 87, they hope for me to get there, and basically they traded up to grab me. I'm blessed."
The Bears appeared to be waiting patiently with only two running backs - Jacobs and Sanders - off the board in the first two rounds. But when the Rams traded up to 70 and grabbed Darrell Henderson out of Memphis, another back the Bears were rumored to covet, Pace sprung into action.
To secure Montgomery, Pace sent his new favorite trade partner, the New England Patriots his third round pick at 87, his fifth rounder this year at 162 and next year's fourth round pick.
The Bears will also receive a sixth rounder this year from the Patriots at 205 which is significant as they were without a sixth-round pick, and getting 205 eases the sting a bit of having to throw in the fifth round pick for Montgomery.
Let's not sugarcoat it too much though, a third, fourth and fifth round pick is a lot to pay for a running back in today's NFL.
The one aspect of Montgomery's game that may disappoint is because of his lack of great speed he isn't much of a home run hitter, which was the knock on Jordan Howard.
Where Montgomery is different from Howard though is he is much less of a bruiser, can stack moves, will make the first tackler miss and should be a better chunk runner than Howard was last season.
What we got from Ryan Pace though is don't worry, you'll love this kid.
Shortly after the third round ended, he wasn't at all worried about what Montgomery does on the stopwatch because of the way he plays at game speed.
"When you guys see the way he (Montgomery) plays, the instincts he has, his drive, he breaks a ton of tackles, and most of all his commitment, his work ethic is off the charts, you'll see how good he can be," Pace said.
For now, Pace has checked the most important box he had to coming into the draft and there is a very humble young man from Cincinnati by way of Iowa St. who can't wait to get to Chicago
• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.