Roster rundown: Jordan Howard's skills could be perfect fit in Bears new offense
Jordan Howard (
Jordan Howard  followed up  his  1 313-yard rookie season with 1 122 yards.  He  had an outside shot at the NFL’s rushing title early in December but faded in the final three games with only 90 yards on 41 carries.  He  became the first back in franchise history to begin  his  career with consecutive 1 000-yard seasons and amassed 2 000 career rushing yards faster than any back in club history  getting there in 24 games. The great Walter Payton needed 26 games.
Roll call: Jordan Howard (signed through 2019)  Tarik Cohen (signed through 2020)  Benny Cunningham (unrestricted free agent)  Taquan Mizzell (signed through 2019)  FB Michael Burton (signed through 2018).
2018 salary-cap figures:  Howard  $692 005  Cohen $713 914  Mizzell $555 000  Burton $705 000.
2017 season review:  Howard  had five 100-yard games and has never been better than  he  was during the 27-24 overtime victory against the Ravens in Baltimore on Oct. 15.  He  carried a career-high 36 times for 167 yards and put the Bears in position for the game-winning field goal.  Howard  likely would have been more effective through the season  but the coaching staff seemed conflicted as to what it wanted to achieve on certain weeks.  Howard  had four games in which  he  received 10 carries or fewer and only six games in which  he  had 20 or more carries. The Bears realized that  Howard  needed a solid workload throughout a game to really get  him  lathered up  but then that approach failed to account for Cohen. Mixing it all together was a struggle because at the end of the season the Bears ran only 934 offensive plays — 31st in the league. To put that in perspective  they were about 70 snaps behind teams that ranked in the middle of the pack  so a little more than four per game. Not that big of a deal over the course of the season  but 25 more handoffs to  Howard  could have meant another 100-plus yards  right?
 Howard  now has 12 career 100-yard games  which ties  him  with the Cowboys’ ’ Ezekiel Elliott for the most over the last two seasons. It also puts  Howard  seventh in franchise history behind Payton 77  Matt Forte 24  Gale Sayers 20  Neal Anderson 14  Rick Casares 13 and Thomas Jones 13. The Bears are only 5-7 in games in which  Howard  tops 100 yards  but when you consider their record when  he ’s held under 100 is 8-24  you see the value.
The biggest issue for  Howard  is it’s hard to call  him  a complete back.  He ’s never going to be Forte  who set the NFL record for receptions in a season by a back with 102 in 2014. But  Howard  would be much more dangerous if  he  was a more consistent threat as a receiver.  He  caught only 23 passes for 125 yards (six fewer receptions and 173 fewer yards than  he  produced as a rookie). Nine running backs topped 1 000 rushing yards this season and every one had more receptions than  Howard ’s 23. In fact  the average was 58. (Chiefs rookie running back Kareem Hunt had 53). Over the last five seasons there have been 53 1 000-yard seasons in the NFL. Only six of those 53 produced fewer catches than  Howard ’s 23 this year:
The outlier on this list is Gurley. He has had 107 receptions in the two seasons since that low output as a rookie.  Howard ’s inability to make more plays in the passing game — and  he  was tied for ninth in the league with five dropped passes (and  he  was targeted only 32 times) — is holding his game back. He’s been terrific running the ball and just might be poised for greater things under new coach Matt Nagy (more on that in a little bit)  but he has been deficient in the passing game.
Jordan Howard  followed up  his  1 313-yard rookie season with 1 122 yards.  He  had an outside shot at the NFL’s rushing title early in December but faded in the final three games with only 90 yards on 41 carries.  He  became the first back in franchise history to begin  his  career with consecutive 1 000-yard seasons and amassed 2 000 career rushing yards faster than any back in club history  getting there in 24 games. The great Walter Payton needed 26 games.
Roll call: Jordan Howard (signed through 2019)  Tarik Cohen (signed through 2020)  Benny Cunningham (unrestricted free agent)  Taquan Mizzell (signed through 2019)  FB Michael Burton (signed through 2018).
2018 salary-cap figures:  Howard  $692 005  Cohen $713 914  Mizzell $555 000  Burton $705 000.
2017 season review:  Howard  had five 100-yard games and has never been better than  he  was during the 27-24 overtime victory against the Ravens in Baltimore on Oct. 15.  He  carried a career-high 36 times for 167 yards and put the Bears in position for the game-winning field goal.  Howard  likely would have been more effective through the season  but the coaching staff seemed conflicted as to what it wanted to achieve on certain weeks.  Howard  had four games in which  he  received 10 carries or fewer and only six games in which  he  had 20 or more carries. The Bears realized that  Howard  needed a solid workload throughout a game to really get  him  lathered up  but then that approach failed to account for Cohen. Mixing it all together was a struggle because at the end of the season the Bears ran only 934 offensive plays — 31st in the league. To put that in perspective  they were about 70 snaps behind teams that ranked in the middle of the pack  so a little more than four per game. Not that big of a deal over the course of the season  but 25 more handoffs to  Howard  could have meant another 100-plus yards  right?
 Howard  now has 12 career 100-yard games  which ties  him  with the Cowboys’ ’ Ezekiel Elliott for the most over the last two seasons. It also puts  Howard  seventh in franchise history behind Payton 77  Matt Forte 24  Gale Sayers 20  Neal Anderson 14  Rick Casares 13 and Thomas Jones 13. The Bears are only 5-7 in games in which  Howard  tops 100 yards  but when you consider their record when  he ’s held under 100 is 8-24  you see the value.
The biggest issue for  Howard  is it’s hard to call  him  a complete back.  He ’s never going to be Forte  who set the NFL record for receptions in a season by a back with 102 in 2014. But  Howard  would be much more dangerous if [TGT][TGT]was a more consistent threat as a receiver.  He  caught only 23 passes for 125 yards (six fewer receptions and 173 fewer yards than  he  produced as a rookie). Nine running backs topped 1 000 rushing yards this season and every one had more receptions than  Howard ’s 23. In fact  the average was 58. (Chiefs rookie running back Kareem Hunt had 53). Over the last five seasons there have been 53 1 000-yard seasons in the NFL. Only six of those 53 produced fewer catches than  Howard ’s 23 this year:
The outlier on this list is Gurley. He has had 107 receptions in the two seasons since that low output as a rookie.  Howard ’s inability to make more plays in the passing game — and  he  was tied for ninth in the league with five dropped passes (and  he  was targeted only 32 times) — is holding his game back. He’s been terrific running the ball and just might be poised for greater things under new coach Matt Nagy (more on that in a little bit)  but he has been deficient in the passing game.