I was not crazy about Chicago’s decision to sign D’Andre Swift. Are we sure he’s much of an upgrade over the running backs they already have?
Khalil Herbert, he’s averaged 5.1 yards per carry over the last two years; that’s 2nd-most among running backs with at least 200 carries. And they indicated they were surprised last year when Roschon Johnson (who backed up Bijan Robinson at Texas) was still around in the fourth round.
Swift definitely has some talent. He had multiple games with 130-plus rushing yards for both the Lions and Eagles. But both of those teams decided to move on to other backs. Swift has had problems staying healthy, and he’s not a tackle breaker.
Given Swift’s style and body type, I imagine we’ll be seeing Herbert and Johnson plenty. That could include replacing Swift in goal-line situations. He hasn’t been an effective runner in that part of the field. This wasn’t a big issue in Philly (with the Eagles liking their Tush Push play); but the Bears will want to run the ball more conventionally in that part of the field.
Below see our in-house numbers for the last four years. This is a summary of all plays in which running backs needed 1 yard to either score a touchdown or keep a drive alive on third or fourth down. Listed are the 41 running backs with at least 25 of those carries. Swift is one of only two backs on the list who failed to convert over half of his attempts.
Swift doesn’t have a ton of attempts in part because of injuries, and also because his teams have opted to use other guys. The Eagles featured Jalen Hurts a bunch last year, and the Lions in 2022 relied on Jamaal Williams to handle most of their short-yardage work.
| "AND ONE" RUSHING (last 4 yrs) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | "Good" | Att | Pct |
| Gus Edwards | 39 | 48 | 81.3% |
| James Conner | 59 | 75 | 78.7% |
| Antonio Gibson | 29 | 37 | 78.4% |
| Derrick Henry | 57 | 73 | 78.1% |
| Ezekiel Elliott | 54 | 70 | 77.1% |
| Tony Pollard | 29 | 38 | 76.3% |
| Sony Michel | 19 | 25 | 76.0% |
| Jamaal Williams | 52 | 70 | 74.3% |
| Nick Chubb | 19 | 26 | 73.1% |
| Kenyan Drake | 21 | 29 | 72.4% |
| Brian Robinson | 23 | 32 | 71.9% |
| Chuba Hubbard | 25 | 35 | 71.4% |
| AJ Dillon | 29 | 41 | 70.7% |
| Alvin Kamara | 26 | 37 | 70.3% |
| Christian McCaffrey | 33 | 47 | 70.2% |
| Melvin Gordon | 21 | 30 | 70.0% |
| David Montgomery | 40 | 58 | 69.0% |
| Miles Sanders | 20 | 29 | 69.0% |
| Leonard Fournette | 31 | 45 | 68.9% |
| Devin Singletary | 22 | 32 | 68.8% |
| Rachaad White | 22 | 32 | 68.8% |
| Saquon Barkley | 17 | 25 | 68.0% |
| Kareem Hunt | 27 | 40 | 67.5% |
| Jonathan Taylor | 50 | 75 | 66.7% |
| Darrel Williams | 18 | 27 | 66.7% |
| Latavius Murray | 23 | 35 | 65.7% |
| Zack Moss | 24 | 37 | 64.9% |
| Kenneth Walker | 18 | 28 | 64.3% |
| Aaron Jones | 21 | 33 | 63.6% |
| James Robinson | 21 | 33 | 63.6% |
| Darrell Henderson | 16 | 26 | 61.5% |
| Najee Harris | 22 | 37 | 59.5% |
| Joe Mixon | 38 | 64 | 59.4% |
| Austin Ekeler | 27 | 46 | 58.7% |
| Dalvin Cook | 29 | 50 | 58.0% |
| Josh Jacobs | 38 | 66 | 57.6% |
| Travis Etienne | 20 | 35 | 57.1% |
| Joshua Kelley | 16 | 28 | 57.1% |
| Benny Snell | 14 | 25 | 56.0% |
| D'Andre Swift | 13 | 26 | 50.0% |
| Cordarrelle Patterson | 10 | 25 | 40.0% |
—Ian Allan