There was a point in the offseason when there was trade chatter around Bears running back Jordan Howard, but no deal ever happened and coach Matt Nagy said that he is prepared to have Howard as the team’s featured back again this season.
Nagy and others have also spent some a good amount of time talking up Tarik Cohen’s playmaking ability, however, and there are plenty of examples when plans in spring workouts are thrown out in the fall. One way for Howard to hold onto a big share of the job would be to do a better job of holding onto passes thrown his way.
Howard has been credited with 14 drops over the last two seasons and it’s something he said he believes he can improve on before the start of the regular season.
“It started being a problem in high school, just not having my hands in the right position,” Howard said this offseason, via the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t work on it that much in college because we didn’t really throw to the backs that much. But I’m going to fix it.”
Howard’s success as a runner -- no Bears back has ever had more rushing yards through their first two seasons -- has value to the Bears offense. If he can become a more reliable threat out of the backfield, his impact on the offense could be even greater in his third year.