Packers Appear to Be Phasing Ty Montgomery Out

There was a two-game stretch this season when Ty Montgomery looked like the Green Bay Packers’ best offensive weapon. That came against Dallas and Chicago, when — while playing running back — Montgomery caught 20 balls for 164 yards and rushed 12 times for 66 yards.

Then Montgomery was held out of the week 8 loss to Atlanta. He missed that game because of a blood disorder related to the sickle cell trait.

When he returned against Indianapolis, Montgomery carried seven times for 53 yards (a 7.5 average) and caught three balls for 38. Based on those numbers, he should have gotten the ball more.

A week later, in the loss to Tennessee, Montgomery played second fiddle to the underwhelming James Starks. This time, he touched the ball just five times.

Afterward, we wondered why the Packers weren’t giving their best offensive player more touches. Earlier this week, we learned it was because Montgomery was on a snap count.

Why is he on a snap count? Because of the blood disorder that kept him out of the Atlanta game. That, by the way, was a game Montgomery said he could have played in and the Packers held him out of as a “precautionary measure.”

And this is what we don’t get. Either you can play football or you can’t play football.

This isn’t baseball where you threw 120 pitches and now you need five days to rest your arm.

The Packers pulled something similar with Randall Cobb — who had a hamstring injury — against Indianapolis. Cobb wasn’t expected to play, but was active at game time. The Packers supposedly had him active only in case of emergency. When they were getting killed and needed to stage a comeback, only then did Cobb come onto the field.

This decision to have Cobb available only in case of emergency was all the more curious considering the Packers got burned rushing Eddie Lacy back from an ankle injury and Damarious Randall back from his own hamstring injury.

So now, instead of holding guys out completely or just letting them play, the Packers’ solution to injuries is to limit guys’ snaps?

In select cases, it appears that way.

What we do know is Montgomery’s snap counts and thus, his touches are trending down. That’s bad news for an offense that’s struggling and it makes very little sense at the same time.