Ty Montgomery started out 2017 with a ton of promise. Many people thought he might be the next ‘big thing’ with the Green Bay Packers. Montgomery received a ton of hype heading into the season, and he fell flat. Some of it was due to injuries, another part was he didn’t really grasp the running back position. With the emergence of rookie running backs Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones, some are wondering what’s next for Montgomery. ESPN’s Rob Demovosky made the case he should return to wide receiver yesterday, and why I’m curious if his time has run out in Green Bay.

The problem with making Montgomery back into a wide receiver is it will be a two-year process at best. You cannot immediately convert someone considering the training they went through to become a running back. Montgomery grew bigger from a muscle-mass perspective especially in his lower body. He would have to cut that weight, start adding lean muscle and lose some pounds to be a successful receiver again. That’s a tall ask in one offseason. Even the greatest basketball athlete of all-time, Michael Jordan, could not get his body in basketball shape for the 1995 NBA Playoffs and still had ‘baseball legs’. The turnaround time isn’t right for Montgomery to immediately be a wide receiver.

This is a problem for the Packers considering he’s on his last year of his rookie deal. If this is a two-year commitment to get Montgomery back to receiver, is he really going to jump at that opportunity? I do think there’s something to be said about using him as an all-purpose player that does a little bit of everything. With the injection of college football offense into the NFL, Montgomery could be a real creative piece where you could see him taking jet sweeps and other speciality packages even if Jones and/or Williams are in the game. To me, this feels like what his role might be but a case could be made to cut ties even if that might be silly with a year left on a cheap deal.

I do think the Packers’ braintrust is smart enough to find a fit for Monty.

Charlie.