The Facts: Montgomery was on hand Tuesday at a suburban field to throw with Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky and his teammates. The Bears know, though, that the best thing Montgomery could do for his quarterback — be it Trubisky or Nick Foles — is to stabilize a run game that last year ranked among the league’s worst. The team was so disgusted with its rushing attack that it fired its OC, O-line coach and TEs coach days after the season ended. The Bears replaced them with OC Bill Lazor -- who has experience in run-first offenses — as well as offensive line coach Juan Castillo. New tight ends coach Clancy Barone is a former offensive line coach. Those changes could help the run game. Montgomery’s evolution as a running back will, too. Asked what he thinks put him in a good position to make a leap this year, Montgomery pointed to the year that’s passed. “An entire year of me being in an offense,” he said.

Diehards Line:Montgomery continued: “Me not being solely a complete rookie and me going in with the unknown that, ‘I don’t know any of the offense,’ or me going in with the unknown that I don’t know if I’ll play or not. [Or] me going with the unknown of not knowing if I will get carries or not, or worrying about all the small stuff that doesn’t even matter anymore. No, I can really get to playing football now because I’m a year in and I’m a lot more confident. I’m ready to go have fun now.” Last season, the Bears were 27th in the NFL with 1,458 rushing yards; 28th with eight rushing touchdowns; and 29th with 3.7 yards per rushing attempt. Of the 20 players in the NFL with at least 200 carries last year, only the Jets’ Le’Veon Bell averaged less than Montgomery’s 3.67 yards per carry. So there's plenty of room for improvement. We'll be watching for signs of that in coming weeks.