For the past couple of years, Khalil Herbert had established himself as one of the Chicago Bears’ most reliable running backs. He had 1,342 yards and six touchdowns over the past two seasons. However, it appears the arrival of D’Andre Swift in free agency spelled the end of his time with the team. Herbert was eventually demoted to healthy scratch over the past few weeks. Rumors began popping up that he could be available at the trade deadline. Sure enough, the news finally dropped.
According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, he goes to the Cincinnati Bengals for a 7th round pick. It might not be the return a lot of fans wanted, but the fact the Bears got anything for him at all should be respected. Herbert will be a free agent next spring. His trade value was never high. Now Chicago has eight picks in the upcoming draft.
Khalil Herbert never meshed with the new offense.
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was said to prefer more inside-zone rushing schemes. Khalil Herbert found most of his success in the outside-zone variation, which Luke Getsy ran in 2022 and 2023. When he managed only 16 yards and eight carries through the first three games, his fate was sealed. Chicago moved to a combination of Swift and Roschon Johnson, which seems to have worked well enough. It is unfortunate things reached this point. Herbert is a good player. Sometimes, the system just doesn’t have a place for you. Still, the Bears got way more out of the former 6th round pick than anybody expected.
It seems Ryan Poles has decided to sabotage the next regime at Halas Hall — by wasting the best RB on the 2024 Bears team for a 7th round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
If that’s the price we have to pay for Kevin Warren to finally realize what a clown GM, Ryan Poles is — So be it.
Good luck Khalil!
We’ll miss you — but this Bears team is going nowhere.
It may occasionally be helpful for the Chicago sports media to realize that the people who play and work for these organizations are exactly that, people. The haste and veracity that they call for people to be fired or worse, with little to no actual justification, can sometimes only be highlighted by applying to them with the same level of criticism they impose on others. They could, after all, just not cover the Bears if they’ve got nothing nice to say.
Ohh Jack…. the same reason we watch the Bears. We want him to do better, we’re hoping to find evidence of it. It’s just not forthcoming. Of course we could just not watch the Bears but sometimes we just gotta root for the inept protagonist to get it right.
Should have gotten rid of Waldron instead
Absolutely pathetic and disrespectful to a good RB. I hope this regime fails further and is eventually replaced. It disrespected the few remaining Pace players and signed some of their old favorites for risky or rationalized reasons and socio-politics.
I just hope Swift does not get injured in the next game because Shane does not know how to use Roschon as well. The players as a team deserve better.