5 players who the Chicago Bears need to be great in 2020

David Montgomery

Last season, the Bears struggled on offense. I believe a lot of the struggles stemmed from not running the football. If the Bears make the playoffs in 2020, it’ll be because David Montgomery had a great season running the ball.

In his first season, Montgomery rushed for six touchdowns and 889 yards. The crazy part is, we didn’t see much of Montgomery until the midway point of the season. If there’s more of a consistent running attack in 2020, expect Montgomery to hit over 1,000 yards rushing, with double-digit touchdowns.

With the Bears not adding much to their running game, it shows that Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace are committed to Montgomery. Whether he becomes great in 2020 or not is up to him, not management.

Chicago’s running game took a hit last season without Jordan Howard. If Montgomery can take over as the official starting running back and they use less of Tarik Cohen, there’s a good chance the offense will improve.

Looking at the last few times the Bears made the playoffs, they had a solid defense and a great running game. That great running game needs to come back with Montgomery in 2020.

No matter who the starting quarterback in Week 1 is, the Bears need to run the ball often. They have to be a dual-threat team again. Their pass-first mindset didn’t work well last season.