Would TJ Yeldon make sense for the Chicago Bears?
If you talk to most NFL experts, they know that one area the Chicago Bears could improve is running back. No, that doesn’t mean Jordan Howard is a bad running back nor does it mean that anyone who suggests the Bears need to upgrade at running back means they are dogging Howard.
Howard doesn’t fit this offense, and he doesn’t fit it on multiple levels. The biggest issue is pass catching, and while Howard improved his pass catching abilities coming into last season, he still wasn’t able to do anything with the football once he caught it, which, in the Matt Nagy offense, he needs running backs that can make things happen in space once they’ve caught the football and are headed up field.
There are a few free agent options at running back (Le’Veon Bell, Mark Ingram, Tevin Coleman) but it will be interesting to see how much money Ryan Pace is willing to invest in the running back position, something he is yet to do in his tenure as Bears’ general manager.
One option that may be cheaper that the Bears could consider is TJ Yeldon. In his four years in Jacksonville, Yeldon has carried the ball 465 times and averaged 4.0 yards per carry. While that isn’t eye-popping, what is interesting is his ability to catch passes. Over that same four-year stretch, he caught 171 balls for 1300 yards and scored six times through the air.
Those are the type of numbers that could find a lot of success in Matt Nagy’s offense.
Yeldon had some issues in the Jaguars final game basically checking out with Leonard Fournette, so that type of attitude is not one the Bears’ usually go for, but on a cheap deal, the Bears may be willing to look past that incident and see if he can feed off the good vibes the Bears’ locker room has.
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Whether Howard stays or goes and whether the Bears draft another running back, Yeldon could be a sensible veteran addition to the team that could help add another element to Nagy’s offense. The ability to catch balls out of the backfield is a must, and with Tarik Cohen becoming more of a “weapon” in Nagy’s offense than a traditional running back, the Bears need to make additions to that position.
Could the Bears nab Yeldon on a 2-year deal with only 1 guaranteed year and get him for right around $2 million per season? Yeldon is entering his prime and doesn’t have a lot of mileage on the wheels the last couple of seasons. He probably doesn’t have what it takes to be a feature back, but he could be an outstanding RB2, replacing Benny Cunningham and being a far bigger fixture in the Bears offense.
If the Bears find a trade partner for Howard, a pairing of Yeldon with a rookie running back and having Tarik Cohen sprinkled in could be a running back room that doesn’t cost the Bears a lot of money but gives them a lot more production than Jordan Howard did in 2018.