Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor, LaDainian Tomlinson. Any of these guys would look nice in a Chicago Bears uniform, but one recently available player might make the most sense for the Bears to pick up: Lamont Jordan.
With the abundance of running backs in Denver, the Broncos felt Jordan was expendable and cut him on Tuesday, along with center Casey Wiegmann.
Jordan may be a little old for NFL running back standards, 31 (one year older than Taylor), but he has been a back up for most of his career, thus not having the usual wear and tear on his body that a starting running back may have. He has averaged about 100 carries per season, the bulk of that coming between 2005 and 2007 when he was the starting running back for the Oakland Raiders. The highest number of carries he has had in a season is 272 in ’05; the lowest is 25, last season.
During his most productive season of ’05, Jordan led all running backs in receptions with 70. This shows that he can catch the ball out of the back field, a must in offensive coordinator Mike Martz’s offense.
At 6’2 242 lbs., Jordan is the big back compliment to Matt Forte that we need. He could even come in to block on plays in which tight end Greg Olsen becomes a wide receiver.
There is no telling what Kevin Jones’ legs will do this season; and our other backups, Kahili Bell and Garrett Wolfe, are both smaller and unproven. Jordan could also bring leadership and experience to a very young running back corp.
Sure, it would be nice to have Chester Taylor or Reggie Bush in Bourbonnais this summer competing with Forte for the starting running back spot. However, we already have a starting running back in Forte so we shouldn’t pay a starting running back salary for a back up. The Bears have more important needs this off season that their money should go towards.
Jordan would come relatively cheap, and could be signed to an incentive-laden one or two year deal; just enough time for our Bears to win the Super Bowl.
Now, if only we could get the original ‘Chicago Jordan’ to buy our Bears.