Matt Nagy confirms Jordan Howard is on the block

The Bears are officially listening to offers for Jordan Howard.

Jordan Howard has been in a whirlwind of uncertainty for about 14 months. Ever since Matt Nagy was hired and the questions started about Howard’s fit in the new Chicago Bears’ offense, everyone wondered what would happen with him.

Did that uncertainty affect Howard’s play on the field? Could it have had an adverse affect on his attitude? Or was it simply that Howard just didn’t fit into the new offense?

All of those answers could be true. Regardless of what is fact, it doesn’t change the fact that Howard is coming off the worst season of his career and it has become almost universally accepted that his fit into Nagy’s offense would never be quite right.

So when Nagy spoke with the media at the NFL owner’s meetings, this response about Jordan Howard shouldn’t have been shocking.

Put aside the quote from Nagy that says Howard does have a role with this running back group. NFL circles know this season as “Lyin’ Season.” The reason being, obviously, is that teams are all pushing agendas and hiding their true draft and free agent targets and basically misleading as much as they can.

Howard’s trade value is low. Nagy admitting that he has no role in this offense, especially after signing Mike Davis, would just destroy any trade value he has left.

The fact that Nagy said that Pace is willing to listen to trade offers for Howard, and sure, he says they’ll listen to trade offers for any players, is telling. Do you think Nagy would have that type of response if they asked about trade offers for Mitch Trubisky, Khalil Mack or Eddie Jackson?

Taking it a step further, check out what Brad Biggs said on 670 The Score this morning:

As Bears’ fans know, Biggs is plugged in. Ryan Pace keeps his organization buttoned up, but Biggs is able to find nuggets from time to time. Biggs doesn’t expect Howard here for the Bears’ week one matchup with the Green Bay Packers.

Howard’s trade value is going to be lower than what the Bears will probably spend on a running back. What is a likely scenario is that the Bears spend a 3rd or 4th round pick on a running back and later in the draft, they move Howard for a draft pick, hopefully a 5th rounder.

It would be splendid if the Bears can get a 4th round pick for Howard, but based on the idea that this is the last year of his contract and he’s coming off the worst season of his career, that will be a stretch.

Howard is probably looking at a 6th round value, or perhaps the Bears can get a 5th rounder and maybe they throw in a 7th with Howard to make that trade happen.

Regardless, the smoke is definitely increasing on the idea that Howard will not be on the Bears this season.