Most of the Chicago Bears coaching staff was in place prior to Wednesday, the 9th of February. The only piece left missing was a running backs coach. A rather important position given how the Shanahan-style scheme places so much emphasis on the running game. It appears Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy decided to go with somebody who has considerable experience in David Walker.
He has coached running backs since all the way back in 1995 at Syracuse. He first gained notice when he claimed the same position at the University of Pittsburgh where he helped develop two future NFL standouts in LeSean McCoy and Dion Lewis. That led to his hiring by the Indianapolis Colts in 2011. He stayed there through the 2014 season before departing for Carmel High School in Indiana. After one season, he resurfaced in the NFL with the Detroit Lions in 2016. There he helped rookie Kerryon Johnson rush for 641 yards in just 118 carries.
Now he’ll take over a strong backfield in Chicago.
We have hired David Walker as our RBs coach.https://t.co/E0jvA0r7IZ
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) February 10, 2022
Walker has often been hamstrung by tough circumstances.
Both the Colts and Lions stints were characterized by teams in transition that didn’t have the best talent available at running back. Indianapolis had him working with guys like Donald Brown, Vick Ballard, and Trent Richardson. Detroit gave him the likes of Theo Riddick, Ameer Abdullah, and LeGarrette Blount. To say nothing of both those teams having little willingness to run the football.
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History shows that when Walker gets his hands on good players, he gets the most out of them. McCoy ran for 2,816 yards and 35 touchdowns in two seasons at Pitt. Lewis ran for 2,860 yards and 52 (!) touchdowns in two seasons for them. McCoy became an All-Pro in Philadelphia and Buffalo. Lewis helped New England win a Super Bowl in 2016. With a room of David Montgomery, Khalil Herbert, and Tarik Cohen to work with? Walker could do some good things.
