As we move forward with our training camp battle series, we move to the offensive side of the ball, where we have an interesting development at running back.
We know what the top of the Bears running back room is going to look like. D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai are going to be splitting the carries. As long as the two of them remain healthy, there will be very little room for any other running backs to get any carries on this offense.
But we are all football fans; we understand the running back
position. It carries a physical pounding, and running backs are constantly getting nicked up. Swift has stayed relatively healthy throughout his career, but he’s only had one season out of six in which he played in every game.
Who will be the running back looking to fill the gap if Swift or Monangai goes down? That’s anybody’s guess.
If you had asked me that question a year ago, I would have said Roschon Johnson without hesitation. But that doesn’t necessarily seem like the right answer.
Johnson’s career has largely derailed. After a solid rookie campaign where Johnson had over 500 yards from scrimmage and averaged about 5 yards a touch, in his second season, he became a short-yardage back, averaging less than 3 yards a carry. Last season, he had a hard time staying healthy. He did manage to play seven games, but that was largely on special teams. In those seven games in Ben Johnson’s offense, Roschon had just two carries for the entire season.
The running back with the third most carries on the team happened to be Brittain Brown (with a whopping five). Those five carries are all of Brown’s career regular-season NFL carries. Some of you might be saying, sure, but he’s young; he has a chance to get more opportunities this year. What if I told you Brittain Brown turns 29 years old this October? Brown spent six years in college, and then largely spent three years on the Raiders and Seahawks practice squads before coming over to the Bears last year.
Brown may be a decent backup this year, but he’s not a prospect. In fact, he’s more than three years older than Roschon Johnson.
The biggest surprise, in my eyes, about this training camp battle is that these are the only two running backs involved in the training camp battle.
I fully expected the Bears to sign a cheap veteran running back into the room this past offseason, but they chose not to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting anything flashy, but I was expecting a vet-minimum type signing or a one-year, $2 million signing as they did with D’Onta Foreman a few years ago.
But Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles chose to roll with the guys they have. Clearly, they expect Swift and Monangai to get 95% of the running back carries, and that there was just no need for any money to be invested into an RB3, but if one of them gets hurt, in my eyes, neither back has the makeup to go out there and give the Bears 25 rushing attempts per game for 3 or 4 consecutive games.
The RB3 competition consists of a career practice squad player against a fourth-round pick entering the final year of his contract, who appears to have fallen out of favor with this coaching staff.
There’s a good chance the Bears only keep three running backs on the 53-man roster. Johnson does contribute quite a bit on special teams, but also appears to offer very little offensively in Ben Johnson’s eyes. Brown offers far less on special teams. Brown had just 17 special teams snaps in his three games. Johnson had 102 in seven.
How does this one play out? I think Johnson makes the 53-man roster as a special teams player and only plays running back if the team is forced to use him there. I expect Brown to safely slide to the practice squad. If there’s an injury to Swift or Monangai and they are forced to miss a game or more, I expect the Bears to elevate Brown to the 53-man roster as the team’s RB2, and Brown would get the carries over Johnson. So while I think Johnson earns the roster spot, I think Brown wins the competition. The NFL is a funny place.
