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Matt Forte, love him or hate him (or, more likely, hate his contract extension), is still one of the better backs in Bears history. Forte needs only 840 yards to become second on the Bears franchise career rushing yards list. He sits fourth currently, having passed Gale Sayers last year and needing only 331 yards to pass Rick Caseres for third.
However, one complaint of fans and media is that Forte has never been great at finding the endzone. He has only 26 career rushing touchdowns, significantly less than Bears players who had far fewer carries (Forte has 1262 carries), Sayers had 39 TDs on 991 carries and Willie Gallimore had 26 career TDs on 670 carries.
That said though, Forte should play a significant role in Trestman's WCO. He'll be split out wide running routes next to receivers and tight ends, he'll be used out of the backfield on swing passes and screens and he'll get the majority of the carries out of the backfield.
How many carries, though, is the question. Some have said that Forte has been under-used by previous offensive coordinators, but his carries last year (248) were the most he'd had since 2009. Trestman has had only two running backs have over 200 attempts in his offense; Derek Loville in San Francisco in 1995 (218) and Adrian Murrell in Arizona in 1998 (274). Expect to see Trestman get Michael Bush and even Armando Allen involved. That said though, I have a hard time seeing Forte getting less than 200 totes.
Forte's receptions have really fell off though, after catching at least 51 passes in each of his first four years, Forte got only 44 catches in Mike Tice's system last year. Forte is a capable receiver, his career high in catches is 63 back when he was a rookie in 2008. Can he catch 80 passes? I cetainly think he could if he was given the chance and he just might get it this year.
Carries: Over/under: 240.5
Rushing Yards: Over/under: 1,159.5
Rushing Touchdowns: Over/under: 6.5
Yard per Carry: Over/under: 4.8
Receptions: Over/under: 75.5
Receiving Yards: Over/under: 476.5
Receiving Touchdowns: Over/under: 4.5
Prop Bets:
Odds Forte leads the team in rushing TDs
Odds Forte becomes only the second RB with 100 rec/1,000 yards
Odds Forte has a 1,000/1,000 receiving/rushing yard season
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