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Green Bay Packers already excited by Ty Montgomery

By Keegan Matheson

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Real football has almost arrived for the Green Bay Packers, and along with it, training camp brings the inevitable stories of young players who are turning heads. After wide receiver Davante Adams stole the show over the summer, with Mike McCarthy calling him the MVP of OTAs, the star of early August has been rookie Ty Montgomery.

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The 6’0″, 222 pound receiver out of Stanford was the 94th Overall selection in the 2015 NFL Draft, and despite relying on his return skills to boost his draft stock this past spring, Montgomery was viewed as a future first-rounder much earlier in his college career for his raw abilities out wide. While expectations for Montgomery as a pure receiver remain fairly low in the coming season, he created some serious buzz yesterday in camp.

According to Mike Spofford of Packers.com, Montgomery was hauling in every ball that came his way on Saturday, regardless of the quarterback. After some impressive work on inside routes with both Aaron Rodgers and Brett Hundley, Montgomery had the play of the day with a leaping catch down the sideline over the lengthy undrafted cornerback LaDarius Gunter, who’s having a great start to camp himself.

I don’t doubt the physical abilities of Montgomery, whose thick frame is every pound of his listed number. These early flashes in training camp are a dime a dozen at this point on the calendar, but what does leave me optimistic about the young receiver are the reports on his work ethic and curiosity in the film room.

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“I ask a lot of questions. I’ve always been that way,” he tells Spofford. “I want to make sure I understand everything and I want to understand why everything is the way it is. That makes anything easier, when you understand why because then you don’t have to just memorize it.”

Montgomery has also leaned on his All Pro quarterback. “He’s very helpful,” Montgomery said. “He’ll coach me up on routes while we’re on the field. He’ll coach us up in meetings and ask us questions to make sure we know what we know.”

Davante Adams’ rookie season of 2014 is the blueprint for what is expected from Green Bay receivers, because despite his obvious talent, Adams was slowly massaged into the offense as he gained the trust of Rodgers and McCarthy. Several blown routes and miscommunications early in the season delayed Adams’ late-season emergence, and that is something Montgomery is wisely working to avoid ahead of his rookie year.

With fellow receiver Jared Abbrederis undergoing concussion protocol, Micah Hyde and Randall Cobb have been seeing early reps on return duties. Given Montgomery’s success at Stanford in that field, I’d love to see him more heavily involved as camp continues, which I expect he will be. Green Bay shouldn’t be bubble-wrapping Cobb, but if Montgomery offers a high-quality replacement, that would me a more attractive scenario than exposing the club’s starting receiver.

Montgomery will be one name to watch closely in preseason games, where he is sure to see a heavy workload as he develops his route-running. My expectations for him in 2015 remain fairly conservative, perhaps seeing the ball in space once or twice per game with some packages out of the backfield. He’s clearly taking the first steps to surpass that, however, and his emergence will further diversify this already daunting offense.

Next: 2015 Packers predictions: TE Richard Rodgers

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