Amon-Ra St. Brown talks Detroit Lions international game, Germany
Amon-Ra St. Brown said his mom, who is from Leverkusen, Germany, would request “50 or 60” tickets if the Detroit Lions played in Germany in 2026.
David Montgomery had just finished dressing as he stood next to his locker at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Sunday, Dec. 14.
I walked up and asked the Detroit Lions running back if he wanted to talk.
“Nah,” he said. “I’m straight.”
The Lions had just lost to the Los Angeles Rams to deliver a sharp blow to their playoff hopes.
Since teams only post hype videos of their locker rooms after wins, most people don’t know what a losing NFL locker room looks like. It feels a little like a funeral. Players – at least the few who are willing to talk – speak slowly and in hushed tones.
I didn’t want to read too much into Montgomery’s reticence or tone, because every player deals with defeat in his own way. He’s also a naturally understated person most of the time.
But I’ve also been around athletes long enough to know when there might be something else going on besides just processing a loss. Generally speaking, if a player plays well even in a loss, he’s usually willing to speak. But if he plays poorly in a loss, or was a non-factor, you can count on tight lips.
Montgomery had been a crucial part of helping the Lions take a 24-17 lead just before the half. He played his usual brand of hard-nosed, up-the-middle, in-your-face football in the first half, when he ran for 31 yards on six carries – a 5.2-yard average.
In the second half, he ran the ball exactly once, for 1 yard, on a wildcat direct snap. The play resulted in a goal-line touchdown – the Lions’ final end zone appearance near the end of the fourth quarter.
Too little, too late – on the stat sheet and on the scoreboard.
After being a consistent starter for most of the first six seasons of his NFL career, Montgomery is officially Jahmyr Gibbs’ backup in his seventh. He’s averaging the fewest rushing attempts and yards per game of his career and he’ll turn 29 in June, pushing against the traditional “best by” date for most running backs.
This is why the answer is clear for the Lions and Montgomery: He needs to be traded this offseason – for their good and for his.
Let’s be clear. This isn’t an indictment of Montgomery’s potential. It’s actually the opposite. It looks like he still has plenty in the tank to help a team that needs a power back able to handle a bulk of the load.
The Lions simply don’t have enough footballs to go around with Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams being the focus of the offense. Heck, even with tight end Sam LaPorta out, Montgomery still hasn’t seen an uptick in his workload.
“I just do my job,” Montgomery told the Free Press on Wednesday, when asked about his reduced role. “That’s not up to me. Whenever my name is called and my number’s called, I got to just be ready.”
Coach Dan Campbell has often voiced his appreciation for Montgomery’s hard-nosed running style. On Wednesday, he voiced his appreciation for Montgomery’s professionalism.
“He goes about his business, he handles it and I know that’s not easy,” the Lions coach said. “It’s not easy. I mean, you’re a guy who, he’s a damn good back and every good player wants their chance to help the team win and get some production, so I know that can’t be easy. I know it’s not easy. But he’s a pro.”
As a former player, Campbell knows the truth about how Montgomery views his situation. Hopefully, Campbell recognizes the truth about his own situation, which is that he can’t give Montgomery more touches and also that the Lions could use the draft capital picked up in a trade more than the luxury of a backup with declining production.
I have no idea what the Lions would get in a trade for Montgomery, who has two more years on his contract. When the Cincinnati Bengals dealt a 27-year-old Joe Mixon to the Houston Texans in March 2024, they got back a seventh-round pick.
What I do know is that the Lions have serious concerns on the offensive line, and that’s even before Taylor Decker makes up his mind about retirement. And who knows when safety Kerby Joseph will return from a serious knee injury, or how effective he’ll be then?
It’s a shame. After all, how long did we wait to see this shock-and-awe, thunder-and-lighting running back tandem from the Lions? When it finally arrived, it came to us in the fun form of the “Sonic and Knuckles” nickname fans lovingly embraced.
But now it’s clear “Knuckles” has been relegated to merely being sidekick on Team Sonic. And that loving embrace needs to end, for the good of the team and the player, with a firm handshake and a fond farewell.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at [email protected] and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
