![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2250052206-e1772506455625.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Running back David Montgomery of the Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n
As part of his offseason work, Detroit Lions<\/a> general manager Brad Holmes dealt veteran running back David Montgomery to the Houston Texans<\/a> in exchange for offensive lineman Juice Scruggs, a 2026 fourth-round pick, and a 2027 seventh-round pick.<\/p>\n It brought an end to Montgomery\u2019s time with the Lions after he saw a reduction in his workload behind Jahmyr Gibbs, whom Detroit is going to be heavily relying upon moving forward as they look to return to the NFL<\/a> postseason.<\/p>\n And while Montgomery is now with the Texans and looking forward to a fresh opportunity with more touches, he still admitted that being traded away from the Lions was rough at first.<\/p>\n Former Detroit Lions RB David Montgomery Says He Was \u201cSick\u201d Over Being Dealt To Texans<\/p>\n While making a recent appearance on the Deebo and Joe podcast with former NFL stars James Harrison and Joe Haden, the former Lions running back admitted that it was tough to be dealt from Detroit, while also praising head coach Dan Campbell.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, when I was in Detroit, I thought I was going to be there for the rest of my career,\u201d Montgomery admitted<\/a>. \u201cI love the city of Detroit. They showed me an immense amount of love. Coach Campbell, a dope coach.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you get a little older playing the game, at a professional level, and you start to kind of see how things unfold, you gotta get met with, like, a tough decision. And I was met with that. And it was inevitable that it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he wanted to make it clear that it wasn\u2019t up to him how often he received the ball as part of Detroit\u2019s offensive attack, but emphasized that he\u2019s excited for the chance in Houston.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd when it came, like, I was sick. I was sad that I had to leave,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cBut it\u2019s the business part of it. I wish them nothing but respect. And I hope that whatever it is they\u2019re trying to do, we get to see them at some point and it\u2019ll be a fun matchup. But I\u2019m always going to have love for Detroit. That\u2019s always going to be home for me and I\u2019m always going to love that city, but I\u2019m in Houston now. I\u2019m in the H, so it\u2019s time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Brad Holmes Discussed The Trade Of Running Back David Montgomery<\/p>\n The Lions had every intention to trade Montgomery, especially given his reduced workload behind Gibbs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was evident that there were less touches that he had,\u201d Holmes said of the trade during an appearance on the Lions Collective podcast in March<\/a>. \u201cAnd look, a lot of it was not just him. It\u2019s how Jahmyr had ascended. Me and David\u2019s agent \u2014 and David \u2014 we all had really healthy dialogue, and we just thought it was best for all parties. It was right after the end of the season that (we decided), let\u2019s just see if we can get the proper return.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Holmes made sure to clarify that they weren\u2019t just going to give him away.<\/p>\n \u201cI told his agent, like, \u2018Look, this guy\u2019s a good player, man. We\u2019re not just giving him away.\u2019 So we were happy with the return that we got,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cI\u2019m happy for David. I think he\u2019s in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMichael Whitaker<\/a> Michael Whitaker is a sports journalist based in metro Detroit with nearly a full decade of experience with publications like Clutch Points and The Hockey News. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Eastern Michigan University. More about Michael Whitaker<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Running back David Montgomery of the Detroit Lions. As part of his offseason work, Detroit Lions general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,6,222],"class_list":["post-939476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-nfl","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116881113026677380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939476","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=939476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}