Chicago Bears: 3 Early breakout candidates for 2019 season
3. Tarik Cohen, RB
One of the big moves that the Chicago Bears made in the 2019 offseason was trading Jordan Howard to the Philadelphia Eagles. Rumors of Howard being shipped out had been swirling for some time as it was clear the bruising running back never fully fit into Nagy’s offense, even when he was given touches. As such, it was a move that always seemed to be coming and then finally did.
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With Howard out of the fold, that means that Tarik Cohen is going to see a massive upswing in his touches. No, Nagy, fans or anyone with half a brain should expect Cohen to be a between-the-tackles runner that is notching 20-25 rush attempts up the middle every game. For the 5-6, 181-pound back, that’s a recipe to land him on injured reserve sooner rather than later.
Having said that, Nagy made a point last season to get Cohen plenty of touches, even working in a time-share with Howard. Cohen notched 99 rushes for 444 yards and three scores on the ground and 71 receptions (91 targets) for 725 yards and five more scores. While those numbers are impressive by themselves, they could be even more impressive in 2019 when the offense is geared more towards the NC A&T product’s talents.
Whenever Cohen and Howard were working in tandem last season, the Bears offense became somewhat predictable in that it was almost obvious that Cohen was going to touch the ball in some creative way when he was on the field. With Cohen now likely being the featured back, we’ll see more deception and diversification from his looks on the field, which should allow more space for him to make plays when he does get the ball.
It’s worth noting that the Bears did add Mike Davis in free agency and David Montgomery in the draft, so Cohen, again, won’t be the only back getting touches, which is good for him. While that may be true, expect The Human Joystick to really be an unrivaled force in 2019.