Chicago Bears: Damien Williams Plays Big Role in Rushing Game

Depth at the running back position was a problem for the Chicago Bears last year. With Tarik Cohen’s status still unclear, it is good that they have Damien Williams helping out.

One of the problems the Chicago Bears had last season was their depth at running back. While starter David Montgomery finished fifth in the NFL with 1,070 rushing yards, the Bears struggled to get key rushing yards when it counted. On too many occasions they had third-and-short situations that they failed to convert. Those failures ended up ending drives. That, in turn, led to the defense spending too much time on the field.

The problem with depth started when backup Tarik Cohen tore his ACL in Week 3 of the season. He was out for the season and the Bears didn’t have a proper option behind Montgomery. The coaches turned to Cordarrelle Patterson but he wasn’t effective coming out of the backfield. They went out and signed Lamar Miller but it took forever for him to hit the field and once he was there he wasn’t effective either. They also had rookie free agent Artavis Pierce. He showed some flashes but he was trying to find his way in the NFL and wasn’t consistent enough.

At the start of training camp, Cohen’s status is still up in the air. He’s still recovering and the team placed him on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. However, the Bears addressed their depth problem. They allowed Patterson to leave via free agency. They did, however, keep Pierce and drafted Khalil Herbert.

The biggest move they made, though, was signing former Kansas City Chiefs running back Damien Williams.

Williams has big-play experience. He came up big in multiple playoff games for the Chiefs. Having him as the backup is a great option for the Bears. Playing for the Chiefs, Williams is familiar with Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy’s system. Additionally, he has starting experience so he can play a lot of snaps, helping keep Montgomery fresh.

Wiliams’ familiarity with Nagy’s offensive system made the Bears an easy choice for him to make. He took off the 2020 season due to COVID so he didn’t want to go to a place where he had to learn an entirely new system.

I could say a lot of things, but really just to sum it all down, sitting out a year and then coming back, I really didn’t want to learn a whole new system, different things like that. So coming here and kind of having the same system, same plays, it was easy for me. And then meeting the coaches, meeting everybody in the building, it was just easy for me.

We don’t know when Cohen will be ready to come back. Even when he does come back, he won’t be the same player for some time. It usually takes more than a season for a player to be at 100 percent. We saw that with Allen Robinson when he first came to Chicago in 2018. He was recovering from the same injury Cohen had. He was a different player in 2019 when he was fully healthy.

Nagy likes his running backs to be involved in the passing game as well. Williams does a good job catching passes from the backfield. For his career, he has 138 catches for 1,106 yards and 10 touchdowns. If Cohen isn’t ready for a while, Williams can also do some of the same things.

Signing Williams could be the Bears’ best move of the offseason. Without knowing when Cohen plays or how well he’ll do when he finally does play, Williams provides great insurance. With a healthy Cohen, Williams gives the Chicago Bears a pretty strong three-headed monster at running back. If the offensive line improves the way many expect, Chicago’s rushing attack could be one of the finest in the league.