DRBR: Chicago Bears

This offseason, the Chicago Bears decided to make a significant improvement in their run game—or maybe not. Because when you take a look at the numbers, is D'Andre Swift really that big of an upgrade over Khalil Herbert? The DRBR says no.

I understand why the Chicago Bears thought maybe they needed to upgrade the running back position, but I'm not entirely sure that D'Andre Swift was the guy to do it. I mean, during his tenure in Detroit, yeah, he had some good games, but he was also wildly inconsistent and he dealt with injury issues. Last season, with the Philadelphia Eagles, running behind probably the best offensive line he's ever had and the best offense that he's ever been in, he was still inconsistent. Except for a small string of games to begin the season, he really wasn't fantasy viable for the majority of the year.

When you take a look at the per game stats of Khalil Herbert and D'Andre Swift, Khalil Herbert flashes a lot of excellent upside in all of his dynamic and efficiency categories. He was a lot better in those categories last year with a worse offensive line and a worse offense than what D'Andre Swift had. So, was the money well spent on D'Andre Swift? I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really think so at this point.

Now, he's going to be the lead back—they paid him to be the lead back. But I'm not entirely sure that D'Andre Swift is going to have the high upside in this offense that everybody hopes for. And unfortunately for Khalil Herbert, he's going to be stuck behind D'Andre Swift. Unless Swift were to go down with an injury, Herbert is not going to be any type of valuable fantasy piece to own.

So, when you take a look at the DRBR, Khalil Herbert got outpaced by D'Andre Swift in volume last year. But on a per-touch basis, Khalil Herbert was the much more efficient running back.