Chicago Bears Stat of the Day: Jordan Howard Drops

Jordan Howard is going to be the focal point of the Chicago Bears offense at least for 2017 and probably beyond depend on the progress of Mitch Trubisky.

This isn’t a bad thing. Having a featured running back to carry things is the absolute best way to help a young quarterback develop. Give it to him and limit the number of passes thrown. That leads to fewer mistakes and fewer hits taken. Then once the young QB is confident within the offensive system, feel free to turn him loose. It’s the way many franchise quarterbacks have gotten their feet wet in the NFL.

Unfortunately while Howard should remain an outstanding runner, there is a lot left to be desired from him as a receiver. Let’s just say the man won’t ever be close to Matt Forte in that department. He had serious issues hanging onto the ball in 2016. On 50 targeted pass plays, he dropped seven of them. That averaged out to 6.6%. Only two players in the league had more.

Radical solutions to the problem

As it turns out Howard was well aware of this problem. He was quite frank about why he struggled catching passes. Part of it was just not being used to it. They didn’t throw him the ball much during his time at Indiana. Then there’s the fact that he often had trouble seeing it in the air. That’s right. Howard claims vision issues hampered him. So he decided to correct it.

Understand that one of the big pluses on Howard coming out of college was his vision. If he was that good in 2016 and his eyes weren’t at 100%? It’s scary to imagine how much better he could be in 2017 with that issue taken care of. Howard the runner is dangerous enough. Now the Bears want to see if Howard the receiver can be improved. He’s certainly trying to help that along.