Why Yet Another Starter Should Be Benched..............

It's time for the Bears to unleash Jordan Howard
Sep 19, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; .
By: Lorin Cox | 19 hours ago

Since the GIFs won't post here's a link so you can view them yourselves;

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The Chicago Bears rushing attack has underwhelmed through two games this season as the offense failed to establish the ground game in both of their losses. Thirty-eight total team rushes have yielded only 137 yards, a measly 3.6 yards per carry.

Twenty-eight of those runs have gone to Jeremy Langford, who has received a much larger percentage of the playing time than most people expected. He’s only earning 3.1 yards-per-attempt, a stat that ranks 20th out of the 23 running backs who have carried the ball at least 25 times this season.

Certainly, the offensive line plays a role in this. The run blocking has struggled at times, but overall, the group up front has been serviceable in this department. Langford simply isn’t doing enough with the blocking in front of him.
Chicago Bears running back Jeremy Langford has not been getting the job done, even when he has good blocking (GIF via NFL Game Pass).

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The second-year running back isn’t showing the explosiveness necessary to hit the holes the offensive line is providing. He has a lane on the play above to the outside of left guard Josh Sitton, but he doesn’t accelerate from the handoff quickly enough and instead cuts back into the waiting arms of Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham.

The play was well blocked on the front side, and you can see the lane that was opened for Langford as Charles Leno and Cody Whitehair worked to the second level. Instead, it’s a run for no gain on the first play of the game.

Langford isn’t getting it done, but this is exactly why Ryan Pace stockpiled young running backs. Ka’Deem Carey has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, but rookie Jordan Howard is practically begging for more carries, and he has impressed in limited action.

Rookie running back Jordan Howard only has three carries in the regular season, but he adds needed explosiveness to this offense (GIF via NFL Game Pass).

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This is the exact same run concept, outside zone, as Langford’s first run, but Howard doesn’t panic when Leno allows inside penetration, and the rookie instead bursts to the outside for an eight-yard gain as he outruns Eagles’ defenders to the sideline.

Howard is listed as an inch taller and 11 pounds heavier than Langford, but he is running with a lot more explosion and speed than the Bears’ starter, who was known for his burst and quickness coming out of the draft.

The young Indiana product has been just as effective, if not better, in the passing game, an area that was supposed to be Langford’s specialty. Again, it’s been a small regular-season sample size, but Howard shows the same toughness and explosiveness in the open field as a receiver.
Howard is just as effective as a receiver, tough to bring down as he fights for every yard (GIF via NFL Game Pass).

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He only picked up a few yards on the play, but he shook the defender in coverage, and it took three Eagles players to bring him down just short of the first-down marker. Langford hasn’t shown the ability to make defenders miss like that, and Howard’s combination of burst and power is what this offense needs right now.

It’s time for the rookie running back to get a big role in this offense against the Cowboys. The Bears need something to jumpstart their offense, especially with Brian Hoyer under center, and we saw what Howard can do as a lead back in the fourth preseason game, when he ran all over the Cleveland Browns for 107 yards on only 16 carries.

Langford has clearly been ineffective, and it could do him some good to be the change-of-pace running back behind Howard, coming in on passing downs and keeping his legs fresher. The Cowboys have allowed 4.8 yards-per-carry this season, and Sunday could be Howard’s coming-out party as a rookie.