Could David Montgomery be the most underrated running back in the NFL?

Is it possible the Chicago Bears have one of the NFL's most underrated offenses entering the 2021 season regardless of who is at quarterback or how well he plays?

It has been well documented that last year, coming out of a Week 11 bye and heading to Green Bay, the Bears switched from Nick Foles to Mitch Trubisky under center, reorganized their offensive line and began focusing on a predominantly outside, zone-read run game.

After averaging 20.1 points a game the first 10 weeks of the season and scoring 30 or more points once — a Week 3 30-26 win over the Falcons — the Bears averaged 30 points their last six games and scored 30 or more four times, including 41 against Jacksonville.

They were the second highest scoring team in the league behind the Packers over those last six weeks and the fireworks were all lit by those improvements on the ground.

The Bears were 25th in the league running the football last season, averaging 102.9 yards per game and 4.2 a carry, and even those pedestrian numbers were seriously inflated by the 144.2 yards rushing they averaged the last six weeks.

If you project that six-week performance over a full season the Bears would have been fifth in NFL rushing, trailing just Baltimore, Tennessee, Cleveland and New England.

While the explosion was built off the outside zone-read scheme and improved play up front, it was running back David Montgomery behind the driver's wheel after just 25 games in the NFL, erupting for 598 yards and seven touchdowns on 116 carries with 24 catches for 226 yards and another score.

How many of you knew that Montgomery finished the season fourth in the league in total yards from scrimmage by a running back, trailing only Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook and Alvin Kamara with 1,508 yards rushing and receiving?

If you'd like to be really intrigued, project out his season totals if he'd performed the first 10 weeks just as he did the last six. He would have finished with 1,592 rushing and 603 receiving, good enough to lead the NFL in total yards from scrimmage.

And for the sausage and jalapeños on the pizza consider this:

While Montgomery exploded shortly after the halfway point of his second year in the league, Henry didn't arrive until game 13 of his third season, Cook took off at the beginning of his third season, Kamara exploded as a rookie but still hasn't rushed for 1,000 yards after four years in the league, and the next best all purpose stud, the Packers' Aaron Jones, came of age about halfway through year three.

It wouldn't be wild to place a prop bet on Montgomery being the top back in the league in 2021.

If he's not it may be because Damien Williams is in town now, the first true No. 2 the Bears have had since Jeremy Langford in 2015 and 2016.

Yes, Tarik Cohen was a force from 2017 to 2019, but at his core he is a prototypical third-down back and occasional slot receiver.

Playing second fiddle to Kareem Hunt in 2018 and splitting reps with LeSean McCoy in 2019, Williams averaged 5.1 and 4.5 with 4 TDs and then 5, respectively.

Now that the draft hype is over, we honestly have no idea how good Teven Jenkins will be at left tackle, but it's hard to believe he won't play at least to Charles Leno's standards — and hopefully much better in the run game. And you also have to remember James Daniels, the Bears best offensive lineman, is due back from injury, having missed the last six weeks last year.

Will head coach Matt Nagy stick with the ground game?

The other change coming out of the bye last year was Bill Lazor taking over the play calling, and while Nagy only occasionally overruled him in game, sources tell me Nagy put an indelible stamp on the game plan in preparation and deserves more credit than he gets for the turnaround.

It's only one piece of the puzzle but for those of you that have yearned for the days of Bronco, Gale, Walter, Neal Anderson, Thomas Jones and Matt Forte, there is a good chance they are finally back.

And if they are, just how much easier will it make it for whoever is under center when he runs play action and decides to throw the football?

• Twitter: @Hub_Arkush