The Chicago Bears aren’t foreign to finding good drafting good running backs
The Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace has drafted a running back in every draft but one. While I speculate that Ryan Pace could go running back for the best player available in round two, that seems unlikely. David Montgomery is the future of this running core until dethroned.
Pace has shown interest in running backs like Darius Anderson, Dre Brown, and Jason Huntley. All of those running backs are projected to be drafted late day three to undrafted. Even when Ryan Pace didn’t draft a running back in the 2018 draft, he did sign Ryan Nall from Oregon State, who was projected to be drafted on day three.
The Chicago Bears can now add Darrynton Evans from Appalachian State to the list of prospects that they have spoken with recently. Evans is an athletic freak at the running back position. He ran a 4.41 40-yard dash, had a 37″ vertical jump, and a 125″ board jump.
Compared to the athletic backflipping Tarik Cohen, Evans is faster and stronger than Cohen. Cohen repped 11 on the bench press why Evans repped 25 times. The competition level of what Cohen faced in college is about the same that Evans faced. Tarik Cohen slowly regressed last season from as a running back. He had about 30 fewer carries and 200 fewer yards rushing yards on the season.
Darrynton Evans is a heavy outside zone runner that shy’s away inside contact due to him being 5’10” and 203 pounds. Evans had 179 carries for 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns. That classifies as his break out year, but Evans figured out what he can do his junior year when he ran for 1,400 yards on 255 carries with 18 rushing touchdowns. He added another five receiving and has shown to be well equipped to run routes out of the backfield.
Tarik Cohen will need to battle this year to keep whichever rookie the Chicago Bears decide to bring in from taking his reps. With a new offensive line coach that specializes in zone running, particularly outside zone, Evans and Montgomery could thrive a lot with a scheme change that better suits their vision and patience when attacking the line of scrimmage.