Do Your Job - Ty Montgomery's Injury Presents an Oddly Difficult Situation

The Pats took a flier on a dual-threat back. Despite a solid Week 1 performance, the move backfired. PIC: Dave Silverman

"Montgomery was worth a flier this Pats team desperate for a silver lining, and it paid off this week....Montgomery caught three of his four targets and was the lone Patriot to find the end zone. While he didn't contribute much rushing, he won't have to - the three-headed monster of Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, and rookie Pierre Strong will take care of that. His job? Catch passes. Doesn't matter for how long, and doesn't matter when. Just catch them."

These are my words from last week. Unfortunately, we won't find out in 2022 if Ty Montgomery can do HIS job - catch passes - as the fourth man in a crowded running back corps with lots to prove this fall.

Ty Montgomery was placed on the Injured Reserve list this week. It was known he had a right knee injury lingering throughout the preseason, and finally it caught up to him enough to sideline him for at least the next four games.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Of course, Montgomery was - at best - a third option at running back. With Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, and even Pierre Strong gunning for playing time this year, it was never a guarantee that Montgomery would sniff the field. But his versatility in the preseason was on display, as he made quite the case to be part of the RB (or wide receiver?) room this year.

Montgomery was a nice experiment, as he certainly functioned as as what James White's traditional role was - a goal-line or third-down passing back. It'll be interesting to see who steps up now. Is it second-year Rhamondre Stevenson? Does Pierre Strong get a big vote of confidence? Only time will tell.

As for if he's back, the classic BB answer is neither here nor there.

“We’ll see how it goes,” said Belichick. “I don’t know. If he’s healthy, yeah, we’d bring him back, sure. If he’s healthy, we’d bring him back. How that’ll all turn out, I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m not a doctor."