Chicago Bears RB Roschon Johnson look the part of a good NFL running back with his combination of size and power but what does that mean in terms of his overall value?
Chicago Bears running back Roschon Johnson has been the talk of the off-season since he was drafted in April. Johnson has been called among the best pass blocking running backs to come out of college in a long time. He’s been raved about as being an extremely high character guy who is going to change the entire dynamic of the Chicago Bears’ locker room. He has been hyped at a level almost never seen before for a fourth round pick.
But what does any of this mean in terms of his overall value to the franchise? In short none of this hype provides anything of substance or value. Even if Roschon Johnson lives up to the hype the overall value, he’ll add to the offense will be minimal at best.
I know we (@AlexDunlapNFL and I) have been talking about Roschon Johnson a lot, since January 2022…
And it feels like most of the masses have come around to understanding he is a viable RB in the NFL
But I don't think y'all REALLY get it with Roschon, and by November you are… pic.twitter.com/D2dSlvmhYY
— ᴄᴏᴅʏ ᴄᴀʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪᴇʀ (@CarpentierNFL) August 27, 2023
First let’s start with his value as a pass blocker. The average NFL blitz rate for teams across the leagues is around 25-percent. Immediately that means that on 75-percent of the Chicago Bears’ offensive snaps Roschon Johnson won’t be utilizing his biggest strength to add to the offensive production. That immediately lessens his value to the Chicago Bears for the 2023 season.
Next we’ll evaluate what he can bring to the Chicago Bears in terms of rushing yardage value comparative to the 2022 season. In 2022 the Chicago Bears were first in the NFL in rushing, ballyhooed by Justin Fields’ record setting performance as a QB. But if you take away half of Justin Fields’ rushing yards the Bears would still have been 6th overall in rushing in the NFL.
The Bears lost David Montgomery in free agency, where Montgomery rushed for a total of 801 yards and 5 touchdowns for 2022. So if the Bears balance out the loss of Montgomery’s 801 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns with their RB by committee the overall quality of the offense will not be impacted in any sort of significant way.
If anything Bears fans should have learned from Mike Martz determining that Brandon Manumaleuna had more value than Greg Olsen. Adding another blocker outside of a good blocker on the offensive line is absolutely worthless to the overall success of the offense. Roschon Johnson right now is the next Manumaleuna, he might be a fantastic blocker, but the Bears need far more help in the passing game with receiving talent.
The Chicago Bears still need receivers to come in and play at a high level and have only added one play making receiver from a year ago. Chase Claypool is still battling an injury, Darnell Mooney can be muscled off of his route by most any defender in the league and Tyler Scott has yet to prove in pads that he is a high level receiver ready to make an early impact in the NFL.
So the Bears yet again have a plethora of running backs, but a dearth of talent at the wide receiver position. Leading one to believe that if the Bears are ever going to join the ranks of the modern passing offense of the NFL.
Bears fans should be up in arms over the lack of talent that exists at the wide receiver position. But they seem to so caught up in football from the 1920s to the 1980s that they don’t care how bad the offense has been over the course of the last four decades.
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