The Philadelphia Eagles help their running game by landing Jordan Howard from the Bears last week. Not sure what the Bears are thinking ,helping the team that wiped them out of the playoffs with a star running back for just a simple sixth round draft pick in 2020. Hold the phone, the draft pick could change into a fifth round pick in 2020 with the conditions of the trade which are flexible. Bears selected Jordan Howard in the fifth round and since 2016, he has the third most rushing yards in the league. Why would the Bears give away that kind of production on the cheap?

Jordan Howard was selected by the Bears’ old regime lead by head coach, John Fox. The Bears then, were a team that came off the bus running the ball. Most of the Chicago Bears history involves running the ball and great defense. Things did not work out for John Fox and they brought in an offensive guru in Matt Nagy as head coach who runs the offense. Nagy’s offense consists of open field college style offense with running backs catching a lot of passes out of the back field. Like Kareem Hunt did in Kansas City. We’ve seen Tarik Cohern of the Chicago Bears show off his skill set with his catches out of the backfield as he avoids many defenders in the process. Cohern who also is very exciting, back rushing the ball as he lines up as a double threat. Triple threat if you want him to run the wild cat on some play packages. Jordan Howard only had 20 catches last season, only for 145 yards. Jordan Howard’s style is only between the tacklers running North and South.

Last season, Jordan Howard  though, rushed for 935 yards. He also had nine touchdowns. The coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, Doug Peterson, who has worked with Matt Nagy, runs a similar style offense as the Chiefs and the Bears. He can find a use for Jordan Howard and the Bears can’t. When the Eagles won the Superbowl, they used LeGarette Blount as one of their options out of the back field. He was a big power back that ran people over. Great in goal line situations. Eagles had other options as well that year in Darren Sproles, and Jay Ajayi. Bears did add Mike Davis from Seattle, who does not have a thick resume like Jordan Howard.

Jordan Howard is still being paid from his rookie contract so he only has a year left under his contract. His salary is not collapsing the Bears overall team cap. Last season, when teams wanted to give the Bears a third rounder for Jordan Howard’s services, the Bears turned them down. Why this year do the Bears have to rush him out the door? Sure running backs are a dime a dozen in it seems like every year’s draft. Bears will probably draft a running back. Could they have waited and kept his services during the preseason just in case of sudden injuries? Maybe other teams could suffer some injury with their back and perhaps the Bears could have gotten more from a guy that has run the ball well his whole career. Plus, has stayed healthy.

I loved how the Bears offense is on the rise. They were good, but not great like the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bears defense bailed out the offense many times in 2018. Bears at times got a tad cute for my taste and that cost them mistakes. Not glaring because they won the game. I think the Bears made a bad decision giving up Howard this year. He was a valuable weapon for that team last season. His style of running game was well executed against poor run defenses. His style of run was great at running out the clock in the fourth quarter to secure some of the wins. He was a great goal line option running right at the heart of defense for many scores. Nine to be exact. What is wrong with a thunder lightning combo, a two headed monster in the back field.

Bears have done a lot of great things. Lots of questions arise as well. The kicking situation has haunted them for years still with the release of Robbie Gould. They are paying last year’s kicker which still counts on the salary cap. Last year they let one of their own receivers, Cameron  Meredith, walk out the door. By checking the box on him they could have gotten a draft pick. Then those draft picks to the 49ers to move up one spot. The Jordan Howard thing better not haunt this team in some rematch in the playoffs next season. I guess we can tell Jordan Howard he can take down all his Bears stuff from all of his social media outlets. He should have that down to a science since he thought he was going to be dealt a few times over his short career in Chicago.