GM Ryan Pace has a good memory. He kind of has to given the enormity of his job. He remembers every scouting report handed to him on every player the Chicago Bears have drafted since he took the job back in 2015. It’s one of the reasons he is so good at what he does. The devil is always in the details and that has served him well to this point.
One thing Pace has always made sure to take note of is consensus from his scouts. He’s made sure over the past few years to build a staff of different personalities with different ideas of what makes great football players. This way when they all go in with both feet on a certain player, it’s definitely somebody he has to take notice of.
This turned out to be the case with David Montgomery. Not only were Bears scouts raving about him before Pace even got a chance to dig into his tape. Apparently what they were saying reminded him of another draft pick that turned into a pretty good player as he told The Athletic.
“I can’t see everybody,” Pace said, “but I was fortunate enough to go see him live. Right away, I saw what they had been talking about, too.”
“They” were Scott Hamel, the team’s Midwest area scout, and Brendan Rehor, their combine scout, and they couldn’t stop talking about him.
What they said about Montgomery reminded Pace of what Southeast area scout Sam Summerville said about running back Tarik Cohen two years ago.
David Montgomery had similar drive and character that made Cohen a success
People will talk about the athleticism and speed being what make Tarik Cohen a success in the NFL. Those things help, but what separates him is his personality. He’s a fierce competitor who may be 5’6 but carries himself like he’s 6’5. It doesn’t matter how big he is. Just get him the ball and watch him work. Having talent is one thing. Believing in that talent is another.
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It seems the Bears scouts got the same exact vibe from Montgomery. As with Cohen, he came with questions. In this case an overall lack of speed. That didn’t seem to matter much on the field though. Every time he touched the ball at Iowa State, he forced defenses to respect him. If they didn’t, they were going to have a rough day.
The scary thing is Montgomery is bigger and stronger than Cohen is but has similar quickness. If the Bears scouts are as right about him as they were about “Chicken Salad,” then the backfield just became something to be feared.
