Chicago Bears: David Montgomery may have significant leg injury

The Chicago Bears have a significant injury on their hands at training camp.

On Wednesay morning, as the Chicago Bears prepared to practice in preparation for the 2020 NFL regular-season opener at Halas Hall, running back David Montgomery left practice with a significant injury per multiple reports.

This is clearly a significant issue that the Bears will now have to deal with. Keep in mind that in an offseason where most of it was virtual, many expected Montgomery, the teams third-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, to breakout in 2020 and possibly become a workhorse running back.

The Bears were clearly high on Montgomery as well, who averaged just 3.7 yards per carry a year ago. There were multiple reports of him showing up to Halas Hall this year in better shape as well. Now that he’s injured, the Bears running back depth chart has also taken a hit.

Depth at running back was already an issue, even with Montgomery healthy. Tarik Cohen is expected to have a bounceback year and become a gadget player. Then there are guys like undrafted free agent Artavis Pierce and Ryan Nall, both of whom have potential but haven’t proven that they can handle a bigger role. Hey, maybe we get a good look at Cordarrelle Patterson now.

The timing of this injury is also significant as well. All offseason, the Bears elected not to bring in a veteran running back like Devonta Freeman because the entire organization from general manager Ryan Page to head coach Matt Nagy and running backs coach Charles London had high expectations for the second-year running back.

While this is still a developing story, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, we don’t know how long Montgomery is going to be out. Depending on the timeline, younger names like Pierce and Nall now have a real chance to prove themselves. Second, even though the Bears may be confident in Nall and Pierce, they should still bring someone like Freeman in for a tryout. This would allow the team to use Freeman as a replacement for Montgomery or a potential one-year stopgap for Montgomery for 2020.

Overall, this is the first Bears starter who could be expected to miss some time. In what is expected to be an already uncertain season, things just got even more uncertain.