Chicago Bears running back Jordan Howard has a real chance to explode in his third season after putting up two very strong campaigns to start his career in the Windy City.
The arrival of head coach Matt Nagy, who’ll be implementing an offense very similar to the one he ran in Kansas City last year, should bode well for all the skill-position players.
However, as it concerns Howard, there is one area of weakness he needs to shore up to maximize his value in Nagy’s offense. Quite simply, he’s been a liability as a receiver.
Taking a proactive approach to this detriment, Howard has vowed to “fix” this problem heading into the 2018 season.
“It started being a problem in high school, just not having my hands in the right position,” he said, per Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune. “I didn’t work on it that much in college because we didn’t really throw to the backs that much. But I’m going to fix it.”
The past two years, Howard has dropped 14 passes and has caught just 63 percent of the passes thrown his way.
Needless to say, if the young running back can prove valuable as a receiver as well as a runner, it certainly will help Chicago’s entire offense. Though, if he can’t improve this aspect of his game, it’ll absolutely boost Tarik Cohen’s stock, which is already pretty hot.