It remains to be seen if Montgomery can continue to put his money where his mouth is after posting a career-low 158 carries and 716 rushing yards while taking the back seat to Jahmyr Gibbs in Detroit last season, but he has shown ability that extends well beyond the multi-year span in seven NFL seasons.
While Montgomery can go through defenders with the best, evidenced by his 33 touchdowns over the past three years, he also boasts deceptive speed and surer hands in the receiving game than his rough running style suggests.
He has had back-to-back seasons of over 70 yards in three different campaigns, including 72 last season, and is two years away from leading the league with a 73.7 completion percentage.
That’s why the Texans parted with two draft picks and offensive lineman Juice Scruggs to pair Montgomery with Woody Marks, a move reminiscent of Houston signing Joe Mixon a few offseasons ago. The club turned things over to Mixon during the campaign, and Montgomery is ready to carry the load after Houston returned the veteran running back.
“I’m going into my eighth year now, and yeah, you like to put veterans in it, but I honestly feel like I’m in my prime,” Montgomery said. “I take good care of my body.
“So am I able to handle the workload? Yes, because I put a lot of pressure and I work a lot more in the off-season to make sure I have the opportunity to be able to do something like that.”
On top of his rush, Montgomery also brings faith in quarterback CJ Stroud, who came under fire after a disastrous two-game playoff stretch even Houston’s championship-caliber defense proved unable to overcome.
Montgomery was in attendance to see Jared Goff rewrite his narrative with the Lions.
Now, with the Texans, he could help Stroud do the same.
“To see him have his highs and lows and he can still come back as someone who can be mentally ruthless and still go to work every day, seeing that from a distance, that’s something to see,” Montgomery said of Stroud. “It’s always good to see how people can handle the bad things, but it’s also really important to see how well people can handle the good things that happen as well.”
“And I think he can handle it all. That’s someone I want to play with and be able to go to war with. Someone who’s battle-tested, who’s been through it all. But who’s also capable of dealing with the worst, too.”
If Montgomery can get Houston back to being feared on the ground after the running game fell to 22nd in the league last year, it will go a long way toward ensuring that the worst is behind Stroud — and maybe the Texans can put three straight Division I berths behind them with a deeper playoff run, too.