What should the Chicago Bears do about their Running Back situation?

1 year ago
349

Today I just wanted to share my opinion on the Bears Running back situation and about the decision to sign Monty or let him go.

First off, The average lifespan of an NFL running back is 4-6 years, meaning usually most running backs are reaching the end of their career by the age of 27-28. In modern times, there are few examples of guys who have played longer than that, but thats why its an average, this is a poisition that gets beat up a lot, we even saw Monty go down this past year and he came back a lot quicker than I thought he would have but Injury risk should be some concern when evaluating him moving forward.

Im not saying Montgomery is not a good back, he is overall a good player. He can block, hes tough, he can catch, he breaks tackles, theres a lot you see from him thats very positive when hes on the football field.

But when you look at NFL History in general, Im always one who preaches these guys are a dime a dozen. Im not a fan of drafting a RB high, because when you look at guys like Adrian Peterson, Derrick Henry, Sequan Barkley, Cedric Benson was a 5th overall I believe, Ladanian Tomnlinson, Chris Johnson, Todd gurley, Ezekiel Eliot, Christian Mcafree, None of these guys have a Super bowl ring. I really believe, and eliot is a great example of this, that you handcuff yourself when you draft a running back in the first round because even if he pans out and produces, and it comes contract time and their production dictates that they are worth the money... They get signed, fall off a cliff and dont produce, and that money dedicated to them takes away from other positions on the team that may be needed.

With that being said, Montgomery was a 3rd round pick, So whos to say that you wont find another guy in round 3, 4, or 5 that can come in here and produce for the Bears?

Montys backup Khalil herbert has also shown a TON of flash. He has his downside, mainly his pass blocking is very poor... but the kid has shown he can break tackles and hes got good vision and good speed, so what I believe is best for the Bears is to go into the draft with the idea of drafting a RB, and go into the season with the idea that you will have a split backfield or a RB rotation throughout the season.
The reason why its tough with Monty is because ideally you would want to give him a 2-3 year deal, which are usually kind of Prove it deals, but hes been on the team... hes been proving it here, so its kind of a slap in the face from the players point of view... but at the end of the day hes going to wind up having to prove it somewhere else. I wouldve also been ok taking josh jacobs on the same type of 2-3 year deal, but he was franchise tagged by the raiders.

I think trading anything for a RB is a waste, Derrik Henry is amazing but I would much rather draft fresh legs then have to give up a pick to get him here, and at the end of the day in free agency really the only RB out there is Miles Sanders... So the bears should look to the draft to fill this position of need in my opinion.

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