David Montgomery Is Primed To Carry A Heavy Load For The Texans
Fantasy

David Montgomery Is Primed To Carry A Heavy Load For The Texans

Ian Hartitz examines the workload that RB David Montgomery is projected to receive from the Houston Texans and the fantasy football outlook.

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The move from Detroit to the Houston Texans could be a boon for Zero-RB drafters who target David Montgomery, as he could be a running back to target after the elite backs are off the board. Will he deliver a big workload both in the running and passing games? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Houston Texans Team Preview.

Is David Montgomery set for a big season, or a dead-zone RB trap?

Usually, veteran running backs leave teams after they had a nice run, but faded out in favor of a new-and-improved younger option. There's a Leonardo DiCaprio girlfriend joke in there somewhere.

Here's the thing: Montgomery hasn't really had a bad season … ever. The man averaged 1,212 total yards and 7.5 touchdowns in four seasons in mostly bad Bears offenses before going for 3,156 total yards and 33 scores during his last three years in Detroit.

Yes, Monty's counting numbers dropped off in 2025, as the Lions shifted the backfield focus to some dude named Jahmyr Gibbs. Also yes, a lot of provocative metrics still painted him as a pretty average-to-above-average running back.

Montgomery among 33 RBs with 150+ carries in 2025:

  • Yards per rush: 4.5 (18th)
  • Yards after contact per rush: 3.2 (13th)
  • Tackles avoided per rush: 18.4% (18th)

Nothing crazy, but this was also far from Dan Campbell's best offensive line. The Lions certainly had every right to prioritize Gibbs—I would have done the same thing, and I'm sure you would have too—but that was also true for D'Andre Swift a few years ago, and that didn't stop him from proving some pretty solid fantasy contributions on new teams in 2023 (Eagles, RB24) and 2024-25 (Bears, RB21, RB17) alike.

I understand Montgomery and Swift couldn't be more different stylistically, and hey, Jamaal Williams' encore in New Orleans was rough. The point is that Gibbs being f*cking awesome doesn't mean Monty is suddenly incapable of putting up big fantasy numbers … something he, in fact, did in 2020 (RB6), 2021 (RB15), 2023 (RB15) and 2024 (RB16) alike.

Yeah, I skipped 2022 (RB28). Guess what: That still means Montgomery has finished as a top-16 RB in four of the last five years that his offense had an interest in using him as a key part of the offense—something that the Houston Texans now certainly seem to be keen on!

I'm torn between the glass-half-full and glass-half-empty scenarios here:

  • Bull case: He's still good, the Lions just wanted to fully feature Gibbs (very understandable). Now Monty has 300+ touch upside as THE running back y'all in a barren Houston backfield with a (hopefully) improved offensive line that could play with a LOT of leads given how dominant their defense should be. Double-digit touchdown upside is on the table.
  • Bear case: He's more OK than good these days, loses pass-down work to Woody Marks, the offensive line continues to suck, and most Texans games have sub-40 game totals and turn into low-scoring rock fights. Inefficient, early-down grinder in a low-scoring offense makes him an obvious dead-zone RB pick in hindsight.

Ultimately, I leaned a bit more into the former case earlier this offseason, but have gotten a bit frightened from the latter potential as the months have gone on. Monty isn't too expensive (RB20, pick 49.4), but cheaper options like TreVeyon Henderson, D'Andre Swift and Bhayshul Tuten sure seem to have more PPR-friendly upside scenarios. Is there THAT much difference between Monty and someone like Rhamondre Stevenson or Tony Pollard, who go over two rounds later in drafts? Hell, if we are ranking Monty as a mid-range RB3 next to Jordan Mason and Chris Rodriguez in late October, should we be THAT surprised?

I'm now the lowest Fantasy Life ranker on Montgomery (RB25). You can see how things break his way, but ultimately, I don't want to bet on older, potential early-down restricted grinders in bad offenses with a top-50 pick.

Also note: Woody Marks had himself a rather awesome playoff debut against the Steelers (19-112-1), but was otherwise one of the league's least efficient rushers of the football. Yards per carry (3.6, 48th among 49 qualified RBs), yards after contact (2.6, 45th), tackles avoided (13.8%, 44th), explosive rush rate (5.1%, 42nd): You name it, and Woody was bad. That said: Houston ranked just 25th in RB rush yards before contact per carry, didn't overly prioritize the RBs in the passing game, and ranked just 22nd in offensive points per drive. This combination produced one of the league's bottom-6 "Running Back Supporting Cast Ratings." While those factors aren't guaranteed to get better, we shouldn't necessarily assume that 2025 means that Marks is definitively incapable of putting up decent fantasy numbers should the opportunity arise. This makes his RB45, pick 144 ADP a reasonable price tag for Zero/Hero-RB fanatics: There's at least some pathway to standalone value should the Texans feature him as their 1.B/pass-down specialist, and the handcuff upside is there considering Marks, despite the inefficiency, handled 19.4 touches per game across his final eight fully healthy contests.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. David Montgomery
    DavidMontgomery
    RBHOUHOU
    PPG
    8.9
    Proj
    190.9
  2. Jawhar Jordan
    JawharJordan
    RBHOUHOU
    PPG
    6.6
    Proj
    2.4

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