When the Detrot Lions signed David Montgomery in free agency, his fantasy football bandwagon was immediately being driven here. Then Jahmyr Gibbs was taken with the 12th overall pick in the draft, and the Montgomery buzz naturally faded.
Gibbs is lined up to be an immediate asset as a rookie, as a multi-faceted weapon in a good Lions' offense. Given everything that's going for him, draft capital investment, his talent and skill set, etc., the fantasy buzz has been prominent.
But Matt Harmon of Yahoo! Sports, in his "One fantasy football x-factor for all 32 NFL teams" piece, reminds us not to forget about Montgomery.
"There is so much hype around Jahmyr Gibbs thanks to his receiving ability but am I crazy for thinking Montgomery could see something like 120 more carries than the rookie? We can still expect this offense to be a quality unit and Montgomery will get end-zone chances."
David Montgomery is in line to be a great bargain in 2023 fantasy football drafts
NFL.com's current fantasy positional rankings for 2023 has Gibbs as RB13 and Montgomery at RB31. Fantasy Pros' Expert Consensus Rankings (0.5-point PPR scoring, updated June 18) has Gibbs at RB17 and Montgomery at RB27. On Fantasy Pros' ECR the gap is not quite as wide in standard (RB19-Gibbs, RB26-Montgomery) or full PPR (RB17-Gibbs, RB26-Montgomery). But in overall ranking on Fantasy Pros, the gap is around 2.5 rounds for a 12-team league.
So would you draft Montgomery as a high-end RB3, regardless of scoring format, in the sixth or seventh round? I think you would. And the way things are going, he's not going to move off that ADP range--and it might drop even a little more before the teeth of draft season.
Fantasy ADP is a zero-sum game. If someone rises, then someone has to fall. There's case for drafting both Gibbs and Montgomery if you're so inclined, to capture all of the Lions' backfield production. But Montgomery is looking like a substantial standalone bargain in fantasy drafts, with legit double-digit touchdown potential as the baseline.