Is 500 receiving yards a fair or foul projection for Tarik Cohen?
Mike Clay who does the ESPN fantasy projections unleashed his first set or season-long statistics. Notable in Tarik Cohen’s projections is that he is on slated to have more receiving yards than rushing yards.
On one more target, Clay has Cohen receiving for 167 more yards than rushing. He has Cohen projected for 470 receiving yards on 60 receptions and 77 targets. Is this a fair projection for Tarik Cohen and will he be that much more impactful in the air than on the ground?
If you have been following along you would know that we completely subscribe to this idea. The first thought that came away from hiring Matt Nagy was that he could similar things to Tyreek Hill in the passing game. While the two are completely different positions, the usage will not be all that different, considering how they got Hill the football.
Matt Nagy came into Chicago and the first thing he did was get Tarik Cohen to extend his route tree. Nagy has exclaimed excitement in Cohen’s development in this area.
Cohen is a smaller running back, standing under 5’7″. There are real questions about how he would handle a true workload between the tackles. However, throwing the ball to Cohen out in space will get him more involved in the offense while protecting his durability.
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More efficient
If Matt Nagy fawning all over him as a pass catcher combined with him having a previous role made for Cohen is not enough to convince you, think about the efficiency of Cohen catching passes compared to running the football.
Last season Cohen averaged 4.3 yards per carry, but 6.7 yards per reception. Even including targets, which adds in incompletions resulting 0 yards, his yards per target mark sits at 4.9. Adding in 18 incompletions shows Cohen to still be much more efficient in this area.
Clay has him projected for 4.1 yards per carry next year while averaging 7.8 yards per reception and 6.1 yards per target.
Cohen is a breakaway athlete who can change games with the ball in his hands. Getting the ball into his hands in space should equal more breakaway plays than running him into a group of defenders.
Projecting Cohen to out receive his rushing stats should be expected this season. He could be a sleeper to lead the team in receiving and while he will be involved in the running game, that is still a domain Howard should hold down.
Expect at least 500 yards from Cohen this season.