Earlier this offseason, the trade that sent RB Jordan Howard from the Chicago Bears to the Philadelphia Eagles for a conditional fifth-round draft pick in 2020 made a lingering issue abundantly clear: the Bears were not satisfied with their running back group and were willing to do whatever it took to rectify the problem.
Howard left, and former Seahawks RB Mike Davis and rookie RB David Montgomery entered, providing a new spark that, with holdover RB Tarik Cohen, should create a three-headed monster in the Bears backfield.
Many on the team, including QB Mitchell Trubisky, are thrilled with the group’s potential. Trubisky let it be known he’s looking forward to opposing defenses having the inability to read the offense as frequently as they did in years past.
Speaking as a guest on Bears All-Access, Trubisky shared his excitement about the versatility of all three running backs.
“I’m pumped about it. I’m really excited about our running backs.” Trubisky told hosts Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer. “These three guys, Tarik, Mike, and David, they can do it all. They’re all kind of similar but within their games, they’re also very different. With them being similar, they can all do everything, which the defense won’t be able to key off ‘this back is in the game, they’re going to have this certain type of play’, I don’t think they will be able to key off things like that. Whatever running back is in the game, the defense will never know what we’re doing.”
Trubisky, while praising his new ball carriers, suggested defenses knew exactly what the offense was going to do in 2018 when Howard was in the game. Howard’s lacking skill set as a receiver has been well documented, so it wasn’t a secret that when he was in the game, the Bears were likely to run the ball.
That won’t be the case in 2019.
Fans may have to wait until the regular-season opener against the Green Bay Packers to see the three-headed monster dubbed “Run DMC”, but the additions add a new wrinkle to an already innovative offense.
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