There were rumors earlier this month about the Bears exploring a trade of running back Jordan Howard. On Thursday, those rumblings were proven true as the Eagles are acquiring the back for a 2020 draft pick, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets. 
According to Schefter, the pick is a sixth-round selection that could become a fifth-round pick.
In early March, it was reported “multiple teams” approached Chicago about a potential deal for the 24-year-old back and that discussions were ongoing. With less than a month to go until the NFL Draft, the Bears found a taker in the Eagles, who would appear to be out of the running to reunite with Jay Ajayi.
Howard is entering the final year of his contract and will make about $2MM this season. Linked to running backs early in many mock drafts, the Eagles could still land a back in the middle rounds and let him develop under Howard. Like he did in Chicago, Howard is expected to fill first- and second-round duties with Philadelphia, while a collection of Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams vie for third-down responsibilities. Obviously, this could change if the team looks to add another back in the draft.
With the Bears, Howard burst on the scene in 2016, finishing second in the league in rushing yards with 1,313 yards and earning a Pro Bowl nod. He again topped the 1,000-yard mark in Year No. 2, tallying 1,122 yards and nine touchdowns. Though trade rumors swirled last season about this time, Howard returned to the team and amassed 935 yards and nine touchdowns on 250 carries, averaging just 3.7 yards a tote.
With the move, the Bears appear to be confident in the one-two punch of Tarik Cohen and the newly signed Mike Davis. Cohen broke out in 2018, tallying 1,169 yards from scrimmage and eight total offensive touchdowns. Davis impressed in limited work with Seattle in 2018, averaging 4.6 yards per carry and tallying 34 receptions.
That’s it a sixth
guy runs for 3rds a carry… he is not that good.
He actually runs for 4.3/carry and has 24 TD’s in 3 seasons.
Dam that’s all we could get for Howard.. I’d wish him luck if he wasn’t going to the Eagles
Well he has been pretty bad for 2 years in a row
2000 yards the last two seasons is bad? As a Packers fan I love seeing the Bears only get a 5th (possibly) for him
the Philadelphia bears
No, that would be Cody Parkey. LOL! Or maybe he’s a Chicago Eagle?
Sounds like a great deal for Philly!
Why? He doesn’t really fit their scheme either.
Pederson doesn’t obsess about scheme fit like Nagy, and will adjust to his players. They had Blount and Ajayi, and both are similar to Howard.
Yep, both useful on 3rd and 1 situations. Not useful in just about anything else. Also a dead giveaway to what the play is going to do. Defenses don’t cover RBs who couldn’t catch a pass or make a play after making a catch. Those RBs are easily replaced. Why Blount goes team to team. Thing is Blount still has some running ability. Howard has been on the decline since his rookie year.
Any particular reason the Bears gave away a good RB to a rival for very little?
they’re dumb
Think before you comment. He’s making 2 mill this next season- his last under the rookie deal- and he has steadily declined in YPC from over 5 his rookie year to 3 something this past year. And besides being a below average receiver, he doesn’t fit Nagy’s scheme. Make sense now?
Still worth 2M in the scheme of things.
No
1) He’s not particularly good and doesn’t fit this offense at all
2) The Eagles aren’t a rival
3) You’re right; they didn’t get much
I meant rival more in the NFC contenders scheme. They both have legit super bowl aspirations.
Does not fit Nagy’s system. They are short on pics trying to get anything they can since he is a FA after this season and They were not going to resign him. One can argue a good coach should be able to coach to players strengths etc. but there was rumblings of this from day 1 with Nagy.
Welcome to the new NFL teams don’t run offenses around HbS whose skills are rapidly declining. Howard was a perfect back of your trying to lose games without getting involved in lopsided scores.
Because they sold the farm for Mack…still didn’t even make the NFC Championship…now lack ways to improve and run the risk of a Mack injury ruining thus season. If you’re going to trade for Mack you better win it all immediately. Didn’t happen.
Bears have most of their starters back. They just got rid of a player that doesn’t fit their system at all. Would you rather have young players who have a 50% chance of being starters or one of the two top defensive players in the game?
What a dumb comment.
Did you eat paint chips as a kid?
Because Howard couldn’t find a hole in Swiss Cheese.
who are you referring to?
I get that he wasn’t a good fit for Nagy’s offense moving forward, but a 6th rounder sounds like a very low return for a RB with his potential and ability. We will see how things turn out.
He’s a decent back as long as you don’t need him to catch passes or block and can deal with 3.5 yards per carry. He might get more but needs 30+ carries a game.
Exactly correct.
He was drafted in the 5th round. Running backs like him are a dime a dozen. I’m fine with the deal especially since he can’t catch and is slow.
Not even a pick this year. What a disgrace
Nobody really wants him. That’s all you really need to know.
The Eagles should have held out for a seventh rounder. May have paid too much…lol
Cohen & Davis—sounds more like a law firm than a running back tandem
LOL.
Howard only has one year left on his deal and had a down year last season so a lower pick makes sense here, but a 6th round seems low. Would think he would have fetched at least a 5th with a chance for it to turn into a 4th or even 3rd based on his 2019 results and if Philly resigns him or not after next year.
Given what the Bears ended up getting, I’d say this is a slam-dunk victory for Philly!
He’s only got one year left on his contract. He’s a terrible fit in the Nagy offense. He was gonna get released, so the Bears got something at least.
Y would they release him? They would not resign him next year.
No they wouldn’t. Neither will the Eagles.
Nagy’s offense? LOL…. QB is STILL a big ? in Chicago. Howard will rotate in Philly and not be overused or overexposed like he was with the Bears who have garbage at the skill positions.
Can’t wait til Wentz goes down in week 3. Your top QB, Foles is no longer there to save the season. Enjoy Howard, you can have his below average 3.5 yards per carry too.
Only a total tool would make a comment how they “can’t wait until Wentz goes down”…
You’re waiting for a player to get hurt soon? Your parents must be so proud low-life!
Yeah a QB, going into his second full season in his new head coaches offense and second full season in the league is a HUGE question mark. You better start worrying about Wentz; he didn’t look like he same QB coming back from that injury and he actually has skill players. What’s that say about him? Oh, and how about his rep in the locker room? Sounds a little divided to me.
When he’s played he was at a league MVP level, how good did Aaron Rodgers look in his first two or even three or four seasons?
Wentz had better numbers last year in a lot of areas and that was coming off a major knee injury. He’s proven a lot more capable as a QB than Trubisky has.
He’s also proven that he gets hurt all the time. Sucks.
All the time…shredded knee and fractured back and played through both…what a hypochondriac…
Don’t forget, Howard’s most successful seasons were in the John Fox era, when the Bears had terrible seasons. This is a very different offense under Matt Nagy. IMO, it’s fortunate the Bears were able to get what they did in return from the Eagles. I’m relatively sure they would have accepted a better offer if they had received one.
Good luck to Jordan Howard, but it was time to move on.
Savvy move by the Eagles. Howard is durable. His yards per carry declining 3 straight years is troubling. But they can focus on other areas in the draft. They have to be hoping Adam’s turns a corner this year.
Hope Adams can catch the ball, because Howard is a below average receiver on his best day.
That’s more or less Corey Clements job anyway. Occasionally Smallwood… Not worried about it really. All they need Howard for is to run the ball downhill.
He runs 3.5 yards per carry downhill. Also something that’s been going on since his career started. Average to below average NFL back.
This is disappointing, because it wasn’t necessary. Nagy should look at what Pederson does and take a page. Same offense, but he builds packages for his players, and rotates backs. No reason the Bears couldn’t have done the same. A 6th next year from the Eagles is pretty much a crapshoot pick, and the cap savings isn’t significant. And they still don’t have lead back.
Nagy knows damned well what Pederson does. They both coached side by side for years in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Howard will not be the lead back in Philly either. Too one dimensional for that. I would be more concerned about your QB that can’t play a full season. Especially since your most consistent QB is now in Jacksonville.
I’m a Bears fan. And I’m aware of Howard’s limitations. But given the return, there was no reason not to keep Howard and use him as a situational runner. The Eagles and Patriots both use rotations and build packages around players. And they don’t have a No 1 back on roster, and are not guaranteed for finding one In The draft. It’s an unnecessary, shortsighted move that provides the team with a crapshoot pick and little cap savings.
Pretty sure the Bears didn’t have a package that includes 1 Qb, 1 RB and 9 O.L. They were trying to trade him last year also. The Eagles acquired him for the sole purpose of picking up a compensatory pick in the 2020 draft. Not because they actually wanted Howard. No other team was willing to offer anything else. RBs have little value. Easiest player to be replaced.
A RB who had 2000 yards his last 2 seasons, 24 TD in his 3 NFL seasons and still had a YPC average of 4.3 is not “easily replaced”. If it’s so easy to replace 1000 yard rushers why doesn’t every team have at least one?
His yards per carry has gone down every single year. Just about every single back will get 1000 yards if they get 270 carries a year. Unless they are Howard. 1000 yards doesn’t mean much when you lead a team to 3 victories. He is one dimensional back. He can only run in between tackles and he lacks the speed or the big play ability that all great RBs have.
YPC is often a misleading stat because it depends heavily on the o-line and how the RB is used. 9 TD’s means something though. As an eagles fan, I’ll take it! Better than what we had at RB last year. I’d still rather have Ajayi’s explosiveness if he can regain it after his injury. I’d like to see the eagles bring him back on a 1 year prove it deal.
brew crew… It was 3.7 YPC not 4.3. He has declined every year since he was a rookie, can’t route run to save his life and has hands like catcher’s mitts. Other than that, yeah he’s awesome.
Nick Foles was hardly “consistent”
If you had actually watched Foles over the last few seasons (or before), you’d know that consistency is not a word to describe Foles.
Exactly, but the internet GMs think a team with such a cap crunch was supposed to tie up a fortune for backup, a quality backup at that, but with little money and various holes you have to spend wisely. Howie can juggle the cap and finances like few others and when you give up so much for a franchise QB you have to live or die with him.
So now the Bears will presumably sign Ajayi or bring back the mightly midget Jacquizz Rodgers.
Or draft a better back.
Draft a better back with what pick? You talk like 1000 yard rushers grow on trees lol
There are plenty of backs who get drafted late or not drafted at all that manage to get 1000 yards. Including Jordan Howard. Howard got those 1000 yards because his offense was designed to run the ball 35 times a game. Better read up on context.
He’s a slacker troll. Pay no attention.
Howard was a 5th round pick. That’s what pick.
Yeah he has been on a decline, but he is still young. The emergence of Cohen didn’t help either. Besides, his decline is still better than any running back currently on the Eagles roster and now you can use your first two picks on something besides a running back. If they didn’t make this trade, and the Ravens drafted Josh Jacobs then they would be stuck with either reaching for one or drafting another back to join the committee they already have. Can still get Love or Sanders. Both have high ceilings.
Running backs that averaged 3.4 yards per carry are so hard to find.
That have the third most rushing yards the last three years? Yeah. And that cost a sixth? Yeah. And that can start day one? Yeah. You’re exactly right. Philadelphia got a quality player and everyone gets upset.
He actually averaged 3.7 last year but 4.3 for his career. Not to mention has 3400 yards rushing almost in 3 full seasons. Never carried the ball less than 250 times in a season either. That sort of durability out of a RB isn’t easily replaced. The Bears will just draft someone in the 3/4th rounds who can carry it 250 times and rush for 1000 yards out of the gate? No.
Uuh, Pace has already prooved that he can in fact do that. Howard’s legs are gone. His yards per carry has declined every single year.
brew crew.. Quit repeating yourself.
Love could end up being a mid-round steal. His injury filled senior season most likely cost him big time in the draft but he could be an outstanding pro if he stays healthy.
Bucs should’ve been involved here dang it
Doug Martin can still be effective in a limited role. Bucs should bring him back.