Sam Montgomery Admits to Not Trying Hard Against Inferior Opponents, Which Explains This

Sam Montgomery was once considered a Top 10 pick in the 2013 draft. A defensive end with a beastly motor, Montgomery compiled impressive stats as a sophomore: 13.5 tackles for losses and nine sacks as the Tigers advanced to the BCS title game.

He wasn’t nearly as ferocious as a junior, and even though he ended up with solid stats (13 tackles for loss, eight sacks), he was a virtual non-factor against Florida, Texas A&M and Alabama. In July, LSU’s strength and conditioning coach, Tommy Moffitt posted this outside his office, and it made the rounds on the web:

Montgomery and some teammates (Anthony Johnson has at times looked like a future 1st-rounder) were slapped with the lazy tag. You could almost hear him tumbling down draft boards. This weekend at the NFL combine, he confirmed to the media he took plays off against weaker opponents.

"You know, some weeks when we didn’t have to play the harder teams, there were some times when effort was not needed but when we had the big boys coming in, the ‘Bamas or the South Carolinas, I grabbed close to those guys and went all out."

That’s exactly the type of player I’d spend a first-round draft pick on. The one you’ll have to motivate when playing the Jaguars and Chiefs.