{"id":187153,"date":"2026-03-02T19:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/187153\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:39:09","slug":"grading-the-lions-texans-trade-that-brought-david-montgomery-to-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/187153\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading the Lions-Texans trade that brought David Montgomery to Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Texans needed a better answer at running back. The Detroit Lions were seemingly on the outs with David Montgomery after a successful three seasons together.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Monday\u2019s trade between the Lions and Texans made sense. Montgomery goes to Houston for a fourth-round pick, a seventh-round pick and offensive lineman Juice Scruggs, according to NFL Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The additions might make sense, but the subtractions leave more questions as we grade each side of the trade:<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Montgomery will be on his third NFL team, as he was traded from the Lions to the Texans. (Photo by Jorge Lemus\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(NurPhoto via Getty Images)Lions get picks and OL help<\/p>\n

The initial speculation was that the Lions could settle for a fifth-round pick for Montgomery, so getting a fourth and a seventh seems like a pretty good haul. Montgomery has been a good back, but he\u2019ll also be 29 years old next season and his $6 million cap number wasn\u2019t cheap for a clear backup (albeit a heavily used one) for Jahmyr GIbbs.<\/p>\n

Scruggs is a former second-round pick and has 20 starts in three seasons, but couldn\u2019t crack the starting lineup for the Texans last season and was expendable. He\u2019ll add depth at guard and was practically free for the Lions, given the draft-pick compensation was the key to the deal.<\/p>\n

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But the Lions now have to figure out who backs up Gibbs. It\u2019s a team that relies on its run game, and while Gibbs has been durable, he\u2019s also a 202-pound back and the Lions don\u2019t want to run him into the ground. Montgomery was an effective player in his role and he won\u2019t be easy to replace. It seems like a good deal for the Lions but let\u2019s see how they plan to replace Montgomery.<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/p>\n

Texans get a RB upgrade<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fine to seek out a running back who has more than 3,000 yards from scrimmage and 33 total touchdowns over the last three seasons. Montgomery is a good player. He runs tough between the tackles and is also a capable receiver. Because he was splitting time with Gibbs, he also has fewer miles on him than a normal 29-year-old running back.<\/p>\n

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The problem isn\u2019t Montgomery. It\u2019s the Texans\u2019 offensive line.<\/p>\n

Scruggs was out of favor in Houston, but trading him and fellow lineman Tytus Howard to the Browns on Monday doesn\u2019t help Houston\u2019s offensive line issue. The Texans\u2019 offensive line ranked 27th in the NFL last season according to Pro Football Focus<\/a>, which was actually an improvement after a horrific 2024.<\/p>\n

Montgomery put up good numbers running behind the Lions\u2019 elite line, and the Texans\u2019 line will be far from elite.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Texans\u2019 moves will make more sense later on in the offseason, when their plan to upgrade the offensive line is more clear. It might make trading a valuable draft pick to get Montgomery as an upgrade to Woody Marks (who looked good at times as a rookie last season) make more sense. It\u2019s not bad to go get Montgomery. But his talent might be wasted if the offensive line isn\u2019t improved.<\/p>\n

Grade: C-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Texans needed a better answer at running back. The Detroit Lions were seemingly on the outs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74721,10386,10376,56,58,57,10382,74720,49124,4842,37658,28087,10414],"class_list":{"0":"post-187153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-between-the-lions","9":"tag-david-montgomery","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-news","14":"tag-jahmyr-gibbs","15":"tag-juice-scruggs","16":"tag-offensive-lineman","17":"tag-texans","18":"tag-the-lions","19":"tag-tytus-howard","20":"tag-woody-marks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}