Second-year receiver Ty Montgomery’s performance against the Dallas Cowboys, though not flashy, was of a break-out magnitude.
Montgomery’s last regular season catch was last year on October 18. In that game against Detroit, he appeared to suffer a minor ankle injury, but it ended up sidelining him for the rest of the season and leading to surgery.
Last Sunday, Montgomery had 10 catches, out of 12 targets, for 98 yards. Green Bay Packers’ receivers have only had double-digit receiving games a handful of times during the Aaron Rodgers’ era. Of current players, Jordy Nelson had one such game in 2013 and another in 2014. Randall Cobb also has had two such games. Davante Adams has only caught more than seven passes in a game once – last year against Detroit, when he was thrown to 21 times.
What’s really remarkable about Montgomery’s achievement is that he was only on the field for half of the team’s 70 offensive plays – and he lined up as a running back on several of those. Given the well-known Rodgers’ “trust factor,” Montgomery appears to have aced that test.
Coming out of Stanford, Montgomery’s primary distinction was leading the nation as a junior in kickoff return average. He was also a standout track and field sprinter and long jumper in high school. His NFL Combine 40-yard dash time of 4.55, while good, might not be a true indication of Montgomery’s speed. He was then listed as weighing 221, though the Packers currently show him as being 6’ and 216 pounds. He’s already demonstrated that he’s not an easy man to bring down.
Montgomery showed his smarts earlier in the year when he went out of bounds and reached back in-bounds to down a kickoff against Detroit – fooling even the announcers, who didn’t know that by rule the Packers would get the ball on the 40-yard line.
Packers fans might finally be starting to see why the team used a third-round pick in the draft to acquire this versatile and athletic player. We will likely again see him used a lot and in a variety of ways against Chicago.