Texans acquire RB David Montgomery from Lions and trade OT Tytus Howard to Browns

David Montgomery (YouTube)

National Football League offseason trades are not made official until March 11, however the Houston Texans are set to be busy when NFL trades are made official. On Monday, it was reported that the Texas have made two trades–one with the Detroit Lions and the other with the Cleveland Browns.

The Texans have traded offensive lineman Juice Scruggs of Ashtabula, Ohio, along with a fourth round pick and a seventh round pick to the Lions for running back David Montgomery of Cincinnati, Ohio. The seventh round pick will be in 2027 according to Logan Ulrich of NFL Trade Rumors.

The Texans have also traded offensive tackle Tytus Howard of Monroeville, Alabama to the Browns for a fifth round pick.

The most notable player in the transactions is clearly Montgomery. Over the last three years, the Lions have had one of the best 1-2 punches at the running back position in Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs of Dalton, Georgia. Now Gibbs becomes the clear number one running back in Detroit. 

This past season in Detroit, Montgomery had 158 rushes for 716 rushing yards and eight touchdown rushes. He had 24 catches for 192 receiving yards. The Texans are Montgomery’s third NFL team after four seasons from 2019 to 2022 with the Bears and the last three seasons with the Lions.

Scruggs was initially the Texans’s second round pick, 62nd overall, in the 2023 NFL Draft. He played his college football at Penn State before the last three seasons in Houston. Howard has played the last seven seasons with the Texans, and has four fumble recoveries in 93 games.