Bear Digest

How Chicago Bears interest in Ashton Jeanty makes the most sense

While the Bears can use a good running back, there's every reason to believe they wouldn't waste a chance at a good offensive lineman when there are plenty of running back options.

Gene Chamberlain

Ashton Jeanty might rate as the draft's best back and the Bears will have him visit Halas Hall but there's reason to see it as cover for seeking a draft day trade.
Ashton Jeanty might rate as the draft's best back and the Bears will have him visit Halas Hall but there's reason to see it as cover for seeking a draft day trade. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In this story:

It's uncommon for teams and players to immediately let slip who they're bringing in for top-30 visits and for this reason the revelation running back Ashton Jeanty is coming to Halas Hall becomes entirely significant.

So much of what's said at the combine or even rumored eventually becomes irrelevant but a running back anticipated to be an early pick saying he'll visit the home of Walter Payton is significant, especially when the Bears really lack a back who fits coach Ben Johnson's plans as a main ball carrier.

Suggestions Jeanty isn't really an early first-round pick because of the competition he faced are so much silliness. After all, Payton himself came from Jackson State and his talent was obvious. A running back's talent is easier to see than talent for offensive linemen or many other positions so everyone gravitates to them, but in Jeanty's case the talent is real.

Why running back is a Bears ruse

It's also easy to see need at the position for the Bears because Swift's past says he's not a serious candidate to be starter this season. Swift's 3.9 yards a carry last year, the way he went from starter to sharing carries with Jamaal Williams when Johnson was Detroit's offensive coordinator and only one season before being discarded in Philadelphia say all of this. Swift has breakaway ability, and speed makes a good third-down or changeup back.

All of this said, there really is good reason to believe Jeanty is all a Bears ruse and it's being done to make a trade.

The Bears have a big hole in the middle of their draft in Round 4. They do have a third-round pick but they never got the second third-round pick for Ian Cunningham's departure because he's staying put.

They can use another third- or fourth-round pick, the kind of price that might be part of a package to trade back with a team seeking a shot at taking Jeanty.

The Bears have too many needs at really important positions on the offensive line and defensive line to waste a first-round pick takign a running back early in a year when there are numerous good running backs.

"The running back, tight end and offensive tackle positions seem to be the deepest and strongest on the offensive side of the ball," Pro Football Focus Trevor Sikkema wrote.

Real Bears need takes priority

The Bears need quality on the offensive line more than they need a running back who ranks No. 1 at his position in a year when the draft has a wealth of running back talent. The lineman brings them more, and that's a way to help Caleb Williams.

Free agency at guard looks like a mess now that Trey Smith is removed from the mix. The ideal free agent guard might be keeping Teven Jenkins or two 30-something players, Brandon Scherff and Kevin Zeitler. Calling them 30-something is very generous because that 30 is very distant in the rear-view mirror for both players.

The Bears need blockers. They need guards. College tackles cane become guards. They need young guards they can groom to be part of the offensive line built long term around Williams.

It is true the basis for Ben Johnson's offense is play-action passing, but he indicated how important having an effective running attack is to play-action when asked about it at the combine.

"There is a marriage between the two, there's no doubt, but I would agree with what you just said–you don't necessarily have to be a great running team to get reaction in the play-action game," Johnson said.

It's the reaction, the defenders biting on the fake, that's important in play-action and they don't necessarily need the best running back to get that reaction but they do need the pass blocking to get the anything accomplished in the passing game. They need line help.

A draft day proposal for Bears

For that reason, the best approach for the Bears is trading back with a team looking hard for a running back early. That team is the other one Jeanty acknowledged as one he'll visit. That's Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys.

Dallas sits two spots behind the Bears at No. 12.

If Jeanty is there, the Bears need to hold him for ransom and take a third-round pick away from Jones in a trade. They can use the 12th pick for a rising blocker like Missouri's Armand Membou, who had the second-fastest 40 time among linemen at the combine and fits as a guard or tackle.

A third-round pick might be a bit too much to get in return for moving back from 10 to 12, and a fourth-round pick might be closer to what the Draftek.com value chart Jimmy Johnson developed says is proper compensation. However, if Dallas really wants Jeanty then the Bears should demand this.

So many of these proposed trades are farcical, heavily stacked for one team or another.

This is one fictional trade proposal stacked in the Bears' favor, but still entirely realistic and one that would suit both teams' needs. Jones is never afraid to go after what he really wants and in this case it wouldn't be baiting the hook but a case where they simply get a little more out of Dallas than they probably should.

More Chicago Bears News

X: BearsOnSI

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.