David Montgomery has been an integral part of the Detroit Lions and their tremendous offensive success over the last three seasons. However, Montgomery’s share of the Lions’ running back load has diminished, and that’s creating some offseason drama that Detroit does not need.

The drama came to a head on Sunday morning of the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, thanks to a well-detailed article from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. In the piece, which focused on potential movement and what league insiders are gleaning from the Combine, Fowler suggested that Montgomery “wants out” of Detroit.

An aggregating account posted that excerpt to social media, which led to Montgomery himself making his first post on X (formerly Twitter) in two years.

Here’s what Fowler wrote,

Two offensive linemen to potentially be included in trades are Green Bay’s Elgton Jenkins and Denver’s Ben Powers. Both have large cap hits and potential value. And at running back, the Lions’ David Montgomery wants out, has a reasonable contract (owed $6 million in 2026) and is 28. That has value. Word out of Indy is that Detroit would want a decent Day 3 pick (possibly a fifth-rounder) in return. Seattle makes sense here if it can’t re-sign Kenneth Walker III.

This is not the first time we’ve heard about Montgomery’s discontent with his downscaled role. In fact, Lions GM Brad Holmes directly addressed it in his Combine podium session earlier in the week.

“We love David. He’s a great player,” Holmes said of the 28-year-old Montgomery. “We’d love to have him. Kind of want to put last year in the rear view and just move forward. But, obviously, a player has to want to be in a certain place as well. So those conversations are still fluid and we’re just trying to see how it goes.”

Holmes added that the team has already had “healthy dialogue” with Montgomery’s representation.

Head coach Dan Campbell evinced the same assuaging tone when he talked about Montgomery in Indy,

“Certainly, he knows how I feel. Drew (Lions new OC Drew Petzing) loves him — who wouldn’t? This guy’s a heck of a back. And so, we’ll just see where everything’s at. Certainly, there’s been healthy conversions … David’s a pro, so we’ll figure this out.”

Point of conflict

Montgomery might be crying foul publicly, but those statements from his head coach and GM suggest otherwise. Neither Campbell nor Holmes says things like that if Montgomery hasn’t made it an issue behind the scenes. That’s not how these Lions operate, period.

Getting lost in the discourse is the fact that Detroit is actively seeking to extend Jahmyr Gibbs. The emergence of Gibbs as one of the NFL’s premium RB weapons is why Montgomery has taken to the passenger seat in Detroit’s running back room. Holmes said this during the week in Indy in an interview,

“The bottom line is this: we want Gibbs here for a long time. He is truly a centerpiece for our offense, of our team. That’s really the main thing,” Holmes said to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “We’ll have talks with his representation starting this week. He earned what he’s going to get.”

Financial reality

The rumors of Gibbs resetting the running back market, with widespread and credibly sourced speculation at over $20 million per season with a significant portion fully guaranteed, do have ramifications for Montgomery. Gibbs has become the alpha dog in Detroit, but unfortunately that negatively impacts Montgomery and his role.

Montgomery’s touches have declined each season in Detroit, from 219 carries in 2023 to 185 in 2024 and down to 158 last season. No. 5 did catch 24-of-29 pass targets in 2025, but that’s still a downturn from 36-of-38 one year earlier. The touches per game average barely over 10 in 2025 after being over 15 in each of Monty’s first two years.

Now here’s Montgomery’s contract, via Over The Cap:

That deal makes Montgomery the 12th-highest paid RB in the NFL in 2026. That will fall to 13th once the Lions sign Gibbs, and some other free agent deals will likely push that rank down to around 20th by the end of March. But that’s still paying two running backs top-20 money for a Lions team that is pushed up against the salary cap already and still has several building blocks (Sam LaPorta, Brian Branch, Jack Campbell) in need of big new deals.

Montgomery being the best No. 2 RB in the NFL could very well be a luxury the Lions cannot afford. That will hang over any talks Holmes and the Lions have with Montgomery and his agent, and rightly so. Remember, Montgomery is in Detroit in no small part because Jamaal Williams dramatically overestimated his value to the team in the same exact role. These Lions will make that tough decision; they’ve done it before and came out better for it.

Montgomery market value

Fowler suggested a fifth-round pick as potential compensation for Montgomery if the Lions do indeed trade him. But a quick look at the RBs on the market indicates that might be an optimistic outcome for Detroit. Why trade an asset to spend $13 million over the next two seasons on Montgomery when you can sign Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, or 1,000-yard workhorse Rico Dowdle, or more explosive options like Tyler Allgeier and Travid Etienne, for roughly the same price tag?

It’s also a strong year for between-the-tackles running backs. That hypothetical fifth-round pick to trade to Detroit for Montgomery could instead become Kaytron Allen, Mike Washington, Seth McGowan or Emmitt Johnson this year for a fraction of what Montgomery’s salary costs. I’m not suggesting at all that any of those players are as impactful as Montgomery. But bang for the buck matters, and in that context, the gap considerably narrows.

And that’s why the Lions have very little to gain from trading away Montgomery. The team itself has given zero indication that they are actively trying to trade Montgomery. Holmes and Campbell have made it clear they want to keep him, that the Lions are a better team with Monty than without him in 2026.

The outcome?

Is Montgomery hedging against a potential downgrade to his contract commensurate with his downgraded role in Detroit’s offense? Or does he truly want to battle to be RB 1B for an unknown other team instead of being RB 2 in Detroit and have a viable path to a deep playoff run in 2026? Those are the questions only Montgomery and his agent can answer. It appears we will learn those answers in the next couple of weeks.