Bears Backfield Work More Scarce than RBs

Analysis: The Bears plan a backfield-by-committee approach but it's rare when a team with a running quarterback has enough carries for such a situation.

The idea of a running back by committee is repeated often in reference to what Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has in store for this year.

When two veteran backs, a highly thought-of rookie in Roschon Johnson and a few others are in the mix during OTAs, this talk of running back by committee and needing everyone is repeated often.

"I don't know if there's any team that can rely on one guy anymore with the pounding and the length of the season and all that stuff," Getsy said. "So I think it's awesome that we have as many guys as we do that we feel we can count on."

The problem seems to be the mix they've assembled. It makes you wonder whether they can actually pull off keeping everyone in the running back room satisfied with how this all works.

Then again, with how little running backs get paid in the NFL these days, it's safe to wonder if they even care.

Beyond that, the idea of a running back by committee rarely actually comes off in the NFL. It's usually one main back at about 60% or more carries, then a back or two splitting up work tossed their way. Teams with running quarterbacks like the Bears have even less work for backs.

The Roster Limitations

No matter what the Bears say about running backs getting work, they're only going to be able to carry so many on the roster. Besides fullback Kharli Blasingame, it would be surprising to see them with more than three others heading into the regular season.

There are only so many roster spots for backs and they're spots needed for other positions on the team. Special teams ability helps, but teams would really need to love their entire backfield group to devote more than four of their 48 active game day spots to running backs when they need players at other positions, as well.

Last year the Bears talked a lot about Darrynton Evans' speed in preseason and he wound up on the practice squad. Trestan Ebner got the third running back slot and he ended up with only 24 rushing attempts even with David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert going out at various points with injuries.

"If you deserve to play, we're gonna find a role for you," running backs coach David Walker said. "So we know ... through 17 games, and hopefully 18, 19 or 20 games this year, we're gonna need about four or five running backs to play consistently for us."

But would it be a role a veteran would want to play?

Limited Work

The truth actually is, there might be plenty of backs to do work but there are only so many rushing attempts available when your quarterback eats up 160 rushes.

The Bears had 558 rushing attempts as they led the NFL in rushing yards last year. Montgomery had 201 rushes while Herbert made 129. After Justin Fields' 160 rushes, it left only 38 to be split by Ebner and Evans. Ebner and Evans were fine for the bottom of the roster or the practice squad. Ebner was a sixth-rounder and Evans had been discarded in the NFL already by Tennessee.

The problem comes when you're trying to keep around backs as spare parts who have actual NFL experience.

If you took 330 carries by their first two backs and split it for this year between Herbert and D'Onta Foreman, it's going to leave very little for Johnson. If Johnson gets 24 attempts this year like Ebner last year, it would seem like either negligence on the part of Getsy or everyone misjudged the Texas rookie's rushing abilities.

To top off what the Bears see as great running ability, they seem to have found Johnson knows one secret to elude most rookie backs. That's how to block.

"He's got a good punch," Walker said. "He can set and be in the right position on both interior and outside rushers, and we'll find out a little bit more when we can go live against people but he's shown he's got a strike and puts his body in position. He understands leverage."

Examples Elsewhere

The Bears' use of backs last year was no isolated situation when it came to teams who had running quarterbacks.

Few teams use the third running back for more than an emergency carry or two is what basically happens, unless they have what has traditionally been called a third-down back. That's someone who catches passes, pass-blocks but rarely carries the ball except in an attempt to full the defense, like on a draw play. Travis Homer is that type of back but never has played this role to a large extent. He's never had more than 25 rushing attempts and never been targeted more than 20 times in the passing game for any season.

An ideal situation is a lead back with several younger players under him to stay interested and learning the position with aspirations of bigger things. The Bears probably had this to a good extent last year with Montgomery and with Herbert and then Ebner.

The Bears now have two experienced backs at the top, a rookie who has obvious skills, then Ebner, a back who they really didn't give much chance to last year, and finally Homer. They signed Homer for two years so they obviously want him around.

Here's how situations like this with a running quarterback worked around the league:

• New York Giants QB Daniel Jones had 120 rushes and they still went with the single-back approach and who could blame them with Saquon Barkley as their top running back? He had 295 runs. That left only 54 carries for Matt Breida and 31 for Gary Brightwell. So it was 85 carries for the second and third backs.

• The Eagles had Jalen Hurts lead NFL quarterbacks in carries and gave 259 carries to lead back Miles Sanders. Running back by committee? They had two more backs behind Sanders. Boston Scott had 54 carries and Kenneth Gainwell 53. That comes out to about three carries a game for each.

• There was talk of running back by committee for the Seahawks before the season and QB Geno Smith was in the top 10 for carries by a quarterback but it ended up being Kenneth Walker III with 228 carries, then Rashaad Penny with only 57 and DeeJay Dallas with 35.

• Buffalo's Josh Allen was third in QB carries last year with 124. Between Devin Singletary (177) and James Cook (89), there were only 31 other carries left for several backs over 17 carries.

• Baltimore might have come the closest to a running back committee with actual number of carries but not intentionally. Lamar Jackson (112) and Tyler Huntley (43) combined for 155 attempts and it left 109 carries by Kenyan Drake, 92 by JK Dobbins, 87 by Gus Edwards and 49 by Justice Hill. That's a good balance and looks like an effort to equal out carries except Dobbins was injured for almost half the season or he would have had most of the carries. Both Edwards and Hill missed two games with injuries, as well.

• Arizona had a running QB situation but Kyler Murray was injured. James Conner wound up with 183 runs and Eno Benjamin with 70. Three other backs split 63 carries. The Cardinals weren't a model for any team with only 434 total rushes and 67 of those going to Murray. They essentially didn't want to run and give carries to anyone.

The Squeeze

The bottom line is barring a severe or season-ending injury in training camp or preseason to one of the backs, it's going to be difficult for the Bears to pull of a balancing act that gives sufficient carries to two veteran backs like Herbert and Foreman, while allowing Johnson to get enough work to eventually become a lead or key weapon.

What they plan for the other two beyond some special teams work and some preseason carries is questionable.

A lot of people talk about backs by committee but few actually do this. The main back with support help is the real model and those supporting backs get work based on injury and weariness by the lead back.

Someone with the Bears backfield group is likely to be squeezed out at some point rather than squeezed into the lineup. 

It could wind up looking like the Mike Davis situation of 2019 all over again. He got 11 carries and was gone after seven games.

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