It's a Backfield Balancing Act Behind David Montgomery
David Montgomery showed enough as a running back last year to validate his status as the team's No. 1 rusher.
After some initial problems with following the blocking scheme, Montgomery started adapting and focusing. Eventually his ability to break tackles and run with power became obvious. Getting him into open space this season more often is the offensive line's goal.
Montgomery even showed some talents the Bears weren't sure would be apparent this soon.
"Really, for a rookie to come in and play, this is tough, but he played a lot for us in third down and pass protection roles," running backs coach Charles London said. "I think he really excelled there. I think that gets lost in the shuffle sometimes.
"Everybody focuses on how many rushes he had, how many receiving yards or receptions he had, but he was one of the top backs in the league as far as pass protection goes on third downs. And that's tough to do as a rookie at times, is see a lot of these difficult fronts, difficult looks, things, he's probably never seen some of these looks in college."
The real problem with the Bears at running back is the way their roster is balanced. With Tarik Cohen as a third-down back, and completely inexperienced running backs behind Montgomery, the need for some sort of clear No. 2 player exists between Ryan Nall and Artavis Pierce.
"Ryan was able to get his feet wet a little last year being active about halfway through the year, didn't play a ton of snaps on offense but he was an integral part there and the preparation and we expect big things from Ryan," London said.
Because Tarik Cohen is a third-down back type and Cordarrelle Patterson can move into the backfield from wide receiver, London said the plan if something happened to Montgomery would be to disperse his duties.
Montgomery and Nall are more power backs or slippery, while Pierce has more speed. He ran 4.47 seconds at a pro day prior to the draft. Neither Montgomery nor Nall reached 4.5.
Cohen has been run on the inside in the past with little success, but is dangerous when put in a position where he can get to open field like as a receiver or on end-arounds and jet sweeps or even toss plays.
"I know he's itching to go out there and return back to his 2018 form," London said.
Cohen's 3.3-yard rushing average and 5.8-yard receiving average were both so far down from his first two years, it had to be a problem caused by multiple factors. His own inabilities to adjust, the lack of a healthy, experienced tight end presence to assist with edge blocking and open up the passing game were factors. The scheme and offensive line also weighed in, and how Cohen handled his declining numbers had to count. as well.
The Bears haven't been among the league's top 10 rushing teams since Matt Forte was in his prime, and between this group of backs they can't be sure they have the depth of talent necessary to move back there.
What they are certain of is there is talent available to look far better than they did in 2019.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
