{"id":786030,"date":"2026-03-02T05:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/786030\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:49:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:49:31","slug":"lions-rb-david-montgomery-questions-report-that-he-wants-to-leave-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/786030\/","title":{"rendered":"Lions RB David Montgomery Questions Report That He Wants to Leave Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Montgomery<\/a> wants to leave the Detroit Lions<\/a>, or does he?<\/p>\n

The standout running back questioned an ESPN report<\/a> that stated he’s requested to leave Detroit this offseason.<\/p>\n

“Damn, Dmo told you that ?” Montgomery replied in a post about the report on X<\/a>, seemingly referring to himself as “Dmo.”<\/p>\n

While Montgomery disputed ESPN’s report, the Lions have reportedly begun assessing the running back’s value on the open market. Detroit is hoping to get a “decent Day 3 pick” in exchange for Montgomery, ESPN added in its report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Montgomery is on a seemingly reasonable contract for a player of his caliber. His two-year, $18.25 million extension kicks in for the 2026 season, but he’s owed $6 million for the upcoming year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lions are also over the salary cap by just over $12 million, a week before free agency starts. So, trading Montgomery would help them shed some money, opening up $3.5 million in cap space, per Over The Cap. However, Detroit would eat $4.8 million in dead money if it dealt Montgomery prior to June 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Montgomery, who joined the Lions in 2023, had a productive 2025 season, although his numbers took a bit of a dip from his first two years in Detroit. His 716 rushing yards were actually a career low, but he did it on a respectable 4.5 yards per carry. He also rushed for eight touchdowns, adding 192 receiving yards.<\/p>\n

In his first two seasons in Detroit, Montgomery rushed for 1,790 yards and 25 touchdowns in 28 games. He also had 458 yards receiving over that stretch.<\/p>\n

The emergence of Jahmyr Gibbs<\/a> as a three-down running back might also make Montgomery expendable. Gibbs was top-10 in all-purpose yards again this past season, and he’s also up for a contract extension this offseason. If Gibbs ends up getting a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid running backs, it might make even more financial sense for Detroit to move on from Montgomery.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Montgomery wants to leave the Detroit Lions, or does he? The standout running back questioned an ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[597,146,113,2506,7,147,122,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-786030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-david-montgomery","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-national-football-league","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116158016699677676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}