Bears WR Equanimeous St. Brown explains who the Lions have in RB David Montgomery

One of the more unexpected moves the Detroit Lions made in the opening week of NFL free agency was moving on from well-loved and highly-productive running back Jamaal Williams and turning the keys over to former Bears back David Montgomery. Williams was not only an emotional leader on the team, but the team liked him enough to enter negotiations to bring him back early in the process.

Regardless, the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, so all focus is on Montgomery now.

Two people who have unique insight into this whole process are Amon-Ra St. Brown and his brother Equanimeous. Both players have now played with Williams, while Equanimeous played last season with Montgomery. This week, on their podcast with The 33rd Team, they broke down the move from the Lions’ standpoint and gave fans insight into what they can expect from their new back.

Equanimeous said he and Montgomery were very close, so he seems half-jokingly upset about not only losing him in free agency, but losing him to his brother.

Here’s a portion of that conversation, beginning with Amon-Ra talking about losing Williams.

Amon-Ra: “Shout out (to) Jamaal, man. I’m excited for him. I think that’s a good fit (with the Saints) honestly. I know they have (Alvin) Kamara there, but, shoot, I already know he’s going to run hard. That’s what he does. I’m just excited to see him... shoot, I wish he would have been on the Lions, but I know how things worked out. We signed David Montgomery, so probably couldn’t afford both of them. But I’m excited to see what he does with the Saints. They just got Derek Carr, Michael Thomas re-signed another year, so he’s gonna have some weapons, he’s gonna have some dudes, but, man, I’m excited for the dude.

Then Equanimeous gave some insight into Montgomery:

Equanimeous: “You guys are getting a great running back to replace him in David. I had him here and he’s a great running back. So you guys will be okay, he’ll be fine, everybody’s going to do great next year. It’s a win-win.”

Equanimeous continued a little later:

Equanimeous: “I know (Lions fans) are sad to see Jamaal go, but (Montgomery’s) one of the hardest running backs I’ve ever seen run the ball. I just remember being on the Packers and playing against him and thinking, ‘Damn, we cannot tackle this man.’ And I’m just... I’m pissed to see him go. Me and him are close. We talk a lot of shit. It’s always fun and games, but I told him, ‘Congrats.’”

You can watch the entire conversation below, along with the two’s thoughts on a bunch of other free agency topics: