Chicago Bears Injury Report: David Montgomery Inactive Monday Night, Lamar Miller Could Be Activated

The Chicago Bears are dead last in rushing yards per game in the NFL and don’t have much depth at running back either since losing Tarik Cohen for the season to a knee injury. Now leading rusher David Montgomery has been ruled out for Monday night’s contest against the Minnesota Vikings due to a concussion suffered last week.

#Bears Saturday Injury Report pic.twitter.com/fePivtodRu

— Bears Communications (@BearsPR) November 14, 2020

Ryan Nall is the Bears’ backup running back, at least if you put stock in their depth chart, but he doesn’t have much experience. He has no rushing attempts and just six receptions so far in 2020, four of which came last Sunday after Nall entered the game following Montgomery’s concussion. The backup did manage to score his first career NFL touchdown on a six-yard pass play in the 4th quarter.

The other in-house option is Cordarrelle Patterson, but he’s been used primarily on change of pace plays to give Montgomery some rest, or on ill-conceived jet sweeps in 3rd and short situations. He’s not a between-the-tackles workhorse, so it’s highly unlikely he will get a heavy percentage of those surplus carries on Monday night.

Then there’s veteran running back Lamar Miller, who the Bears signed to the practice squad in October shortly after losing Cohen for the season. According to Matt Nagy, Miller has been looking good and doing everything the team has asked of him in meetings and at practice. The coach said Saturday that Miller is an option for the depleted offense.

With David Montgomery ruled out for #MINvsCHI, Coach Nagy says Lamar Miller is an option the team is looking into: "To me, there's an excitement of the possibility of him being able to fill a role for us."

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 14, 2020

We should get more clarity about Miller’s availability on Sunday.