Ty Montgomery spent the last few weeks working exclusively with the Saints wide receivers in order to provide depth for the group which has lost several players to injury in recent weeks.
But when New Orleans’ leading rusher and receiver Alvin Kamara was added to the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list, the Saints asked Montgomery to brush up on the gameplay at running back.
“And then I pull into work the next day and it’s like ‘You’re our only running back,’” Montgomery said. “I’m like your kidding.”
Every other Saints running back was added to the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list due to close contact with Kamara leaving only Montgomery and practice squad running back Tony Jones Jr. available for Sunday’s regular season finale against the Carolina Panthers.
But the shakeup didn’t phase Montgomery who rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries in New Orleans' 33-7 win against the Carolina.
”Ty (Montgomery) was fantastic tonight,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I mean, he played exceptionally well and I'm proud of him. I'm proud of a number of the other younger guys that stepped in."
Montgomery who spent much of training camp and the earlier part of the season said he felt prepared for the workload he was handed on short notice although the cramming he did before the game “felt like I was going back to my Stanford days.”
“It was a bunch of things I’ve already ran so I just came in with the mindset that I was going going to take the yards that the defense was going to give me, ball security, be decisive and get down hill,” he said.
Montgomery said the move reminded him of 2016, his breakout season with the Packers.
“When I was with the Packers in 2016, we lost Eddie Lacy and James Starks in the same game so I had to step up and do the same thing from receiver to running back,” he said.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees said he was impressed by Montgomery’s ability to quickly transition as he “had a significant role as a receiver in this game just like he did last week against the Vikings at receiver.”
“And so all of a sudden, it's like hey, switch gears, Ty is now running back, Tony Jones you're coming up from practice squad running back,” Brees said. “And, alright, here's the receivers that now are going to be up to kind of fill this role that Ty had as a receiver and you can just imagine all the kind of moving and shaking and chess pieces that kind of need to be flipped around. And then you kind of go into the gameplan and just making sure that everybody's comfortable with what we're doing, but can't say enough about our coaching staff to be able to do that and also Ty and the job that he did."
