The Detroit Lions have traded David Montgomery to the Houston Texans, and it was an emotional moment for the fans and the players as well.

On the St. Brown podcast, Amon-Ra St. Brown revealed that there's a group chat of Lions RBs Craig, Gibbs, Sione Vaki, and Brown himself.

He revealed that before the NFL tweeted about the trade, Montgomery texted in the group chat:

"He said it was a pleasure playing with you boys. And then we all just reacted. We all just send like sad emojis and stuff. But yeah, he reached out to us. This was before they even tweeted...I checked the timestamp...he let us know before everyone else even knew."

The Lions traded Montgomery on Monday, March 2, 2026, for offensive lineman Juice Scruggs plus a 4th-round and 7th-round draft pick in return. The move becomes official on March 11, 2026, when the new NFL league year starts.

He first came to the Lions after signing the contract as a free agent in 2023. Before this, he was with the Chicago Bears for four years after they drafted him in 2019. His time with the Lions was nothing less than historic as the NFL franchise won its first NFC championship in 2023.

Montgomery rushed for 1,015 yards and 13 touchdowns that season. In 2024, he became the first Lions back since Barry Sanders (1990) to have 10+ games with at least 50 rushing yards and a rushing TD in a season. After the trade, he shared another message for his teammates. He said:

"To the homies, my teammates, man, y’all know how we rock, man. Just because I’m going somewhere else, it don’t change the love and the kind of respect I got for y’all boys, too, because day in, day out, I worked with y’all boys for three years, and I appreciate y’all for that.”

St. Brown, Goff, and Gibbs Also Said Their Goodbye to David Montgomery

The running back took to Instagram to bid his farewell to the Lions.

“This isn’t goodbye because something ended. It’s goodbye because something grew. And growth sometimes calls us forward,” a part of his message read. Jared Goff was present in the comments section.

“The greatest,” he commented. Even Amon-Ra. St. Brown also commented “Brother” with a red heart emoji. In his recent podcast, he also said that while he is happy for Montgomery, he personally hates the trade. D. Mo's RB partner, Jahmyr Gibbs, also had a heartbreaking reaction.

He posted an image of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles walking away from each other with a broken-heart emoji above them. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, who played together in Detroit, were famously nicknamed Sonic and Knuckles.

Detroit fans, how do you feel about David Montgomery's departure from the franchise? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Reyansh Dubey

Edited by

Kalp Thaker