There are a number of interesting candidates for the Chicago Bears bounce-back candidate of 2020. Akiem Hicks makes plenty of sense. He missed most of last year with an injury and is reportedly in top shape. Mitch Trubisky is obviously another possibility given the stark differences between his 2018 and 2019 seasons. Khalil Mack also had a disappointing year (by his standards). However, none of them were the choice of Pro Football Focus.
The player that had the most surprising down year in their estimation was Tarik Cohen. After lighting up defenses with his unique playmaking skill in his first two seasons, the electricity seemed to fade last season. Fans grew frustrated with his sudden passiveness. His constant running out of bounds rather than try for more yards drew a lot of anger in particular.
Belief is those issues should get cleared up this season.
“After being one of the most dynamic receiving backs in the NFL in 2017 and 2018, Cohen took a big step backward in his third season. Combining 2017 and 2018, he ranked behind only Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara in PFF receiving grade. Last season, however, he ranked 24th of 32 running backs who saw at least 40 targets.
He dropped more passes, broke tackles at a lower rate and produced significantly fewer explosive plays. It was completely uncharacteristic based on what we saw from him in his first two years in the NFL, so it would be a surprise not to see him bounce back in some capacity in 2020.”
Chicago Bears have to be less obvious with Cohen
The tone for Cohen’s season seemed set from the first play of 2019 when he fumbled the snap. Like others on the Bears offense, that disastrous opener against the Packers cast a dark cloud over them. Something they never seemed to shake. The running back admitted after reviewing the film this offseason that he didn’t play like himself.
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That being said, the Bears also need to help him out more. It became too easy to see what the team was trying to do with him. He got a lot fewer running touches (64) than passing touches (79). Something that was the complete opposite the two prior years. Teams no longer respected that Chicago would use him to run the football, thus allowing them to suffocate his effect in the passing game.
Matt Nagy had to do a better job balancing out his touches. This will mark it harder for defenses to predict what he’ll do from one play to the next, which makes him the most dangerous.
