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  1. David Montgomery Contract And Lions Salary Cap Savings
  2. Lions Fantasy Football Fallout and Jahmyr Gibbs
  3. Texans Fantasy Football Fallout and Woody Marks

There you have it, folks - with free agency set to start next week, we got a little breaking news early to get us going. Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery has been traded to the Houston Texans for a fourth and seventh-round pick, along with offensive lineman Juice Scruggs. And the fallout from that move will have ripples throughout free agency and the fantasy football landscape.

We speculated that David Montgomery could be a trade candidate in our Lions Free Agency Preview article. And we talked about Houston being a good running back landing spot in our Texans Free Agency Preview article. Rather than wait for free agency to open, the two teams came to an agreement on a deal and shipped the veteran off on Monday morning.

David Montgomery Contract And Lions Salary Cap Savings

One of the reasons David Montgomery went for so cheap is that the Lions do get $3.5M in salary cap relief here. The Texans now have Montgomery under contract for 2026 with a $8.37M cap hit. If they decide that they no longer want his services after year one, he can be released with ~$7.75M in savings and $2.5M in dead cap next year. The Lions clear some cap moving a player they weren’t using much, Montgomery gets a bigger role, and the Texans get their guy.

 

 

 

Lions Fantasy Football Fallout and Jahmyr Gibbs

To be honest, David Montgomery was already relegated to a much smaller role. When Jahmyr Gibbs was just coming into the league, Montgomery would start and get the goal-line work, while Gibbs would get more of the pass-down work. This past season, Gibbs was starting and getting all of the high-leverage action while Montgomery was only playing to spell him. Montgomery actually registered zero starts in 2026. The split was reminiscent of what the Atlanta Falcons did with Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier.

So the move doesn’t really move the needle all that far for Gibbs in fantasy football, where he was already a super premium pick. The Lions will likely supplement his touches with a cheaper free agent, a rookie, or an incumbent like Sione Vaki.

Texans Fantasy Football Fallout and Woody Marks

The reports were already out there that Joe Mixon was set to be released. The injury situation with him was about as mysterious as it gets, and the release reports also mentioned that he just recently underwent surgery again. So he was already out of the picture for us.

The big loser here with this deal is Woody Marks. He had earned the starting job for a Texans team that made the playoffs. He’s a hard runner but would often end up nicked up by the end of some of these games. Now they bring in big-bodied David Montgomery, which should relegate Woody Marks to part-time work, likely skewing towards pass downs. 

 

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