David Montgomery improves 40-yard dash at Pro Day

Iowa State RB David Montgomery helped his 2019 NFL draft stock with an improved 40-yard dash at his Pro Day.

Iowa State running back David Montgomery began the 2018 college football season in contention to be the first running back selected in the 2019 NFL Draft, but he lost momentum to Alabama’s Josh Jacobs as the year progressed and is now jockeying with players like Memphis’ Darrell Henderson and FAU’s Devin Singletary in a cluster of Day-2 prospects.

But Montgomery’s stock is back on the rise after a fantastic showing at his Pro Day. He improved his 40-yard dash time to the low 4.5’s after running a 4.63 at the 2019 NFL combine.

Montgomery finished the 2018 season with 1,216 yards and 13 touchdowns, capping off a fantastic career with the Cyclones where he carried the ball 624 times for 2,925 yards and 26 scores.

The most exciting aspect of Montgomery’s game is his near-rare contact balance. He has fantastic short-area quickness and runs with such a low center of gravity that it’s nearly impossible for defenders to bring him to the ground on the first hit.

Jacobs’ stock, on the other hand, is trending in the wrong direction. His slower-than-expected 40-yard dash at his Pro Day has raised questions about whether he’s really worthy of first-round consideration, and with a limited body of work to evaluate at Alabama, it’s not out of the question for a player like Montgomery to leapfrog him come draft weekend.

Another running back jockeying for the vaunted RB1 title is Penn State’s Miles Sanders, who’s the fastest and most dynamic playmaker of the three.

Regardless of who ends up off the board first, it’s highly unlikely at this point that any running back will be a first-round pick.