Bears-Vikings Preview: Is there any hope for Benson?
With Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings coming to town, it's time to look at our own runningback drafted within the top ten picks of the first round: Cedric Benson. At the beginning of the season, I envisioned three scenarios for Benson:
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Monster year: 1700 yards, 12 TDs. At a minimum. Think Larry Johnson.
- Very mediocre year: 1000 yards, 6 TDs, 3.5 ypc. Call it the James Allen special.
- Blown knee: < 500 yards, 1 TD. Call it the Enis.
He is well on his way towards projection #2, at best. It's good enough to win with, but hardly good enough for the team to depend on him beyond 2007. So is Benson a lost cause or what?
Popular perception is yes, absolutely. The dude just doesn't seem to care. You see him in interviews and it's like he's perpetually stoned. I just want to know is what happened to this guy? This guy dominated at Texas. He ran around people, over people, and through people. His status as the fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft was not bullshit. He really was one of the top players in the country. Heck, he looked pretty damn good in a limited role last season. My only explanation for Benson's downfall, other than him being a loon, is his massive workload. Guy ran for over 5,000 yards in college, and NFL runningbacks have a short shelf life. (average career span is five years) Maybe he wasted half of his in college. I don't know, I'm grasping at straws here.
Benson's not in danger of losing his job any time soon. Adrian Peterson, of the Bears, is a solid backup and great Special Teams player, but he's hardly special. He might be a little better than Benson right now, but I can't imagine him ever being ranked among the top 15 backs in football. And Garrett Wolfe is simply too small, that's all there is to it. Third down back at best. (Of course, we don't really know what he's capable of because he's been in for all of five plays this season, with lousy playcalling on those plays to boot. But I suspect he's not the answer either.)
I think the Bears just have to stick with Benson the rest of the year. If he ever wakes up, he can become a force. And if he doesn't? Well, time to think about picking up a runner in next year's draft. Hopefully, the Bears will be drafting at the bottom of the first round. If so, there should be plenty of talent available. Guys like Joseph Addai, Larry Johnson, and Shaun Alexander were all late first round picks; and Pro Bowls have been littered with Backs drafted later than that.
Benson finishes the year. If he can't get his yards per carry up around 4.0, the Bears need to cut bait and look to the draft.
In other news, Lance Briggs told the media that he's open to signing a long term contract with the Bears. And the Bears have a huge wad of cash in their pockets that was earmarked for Rex Grossman. Rex has become, shall we say, a bad investment and it seems unlikely at this point that he's going to get anything more than a kick out the door from the Bears. The free agent QBs available next year aren't so hot either, unless you think Derrek Anderson is The Answer. (I don't.) So the Bears have money to spend, and it's clear that the defense doesn't do well without Briggs. Seems like a no brainer to me. Then again, it seemed like a no brainer six months ago and where are we now.
And that leads me to Sunday's game against the "real" Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings. Have I mentioned that I hate the Vikings? An absolutely deplorable club, and it has little to do with the current personnel. (Only Pat Williams makes my Charles Martin-style hit list.) I just grew up hating guys like Wade Wilson, Anthony Carter, Chris Doleman, Cris Carter, Randy Moss, and, well, pretty much all of them. Put 'em all in a ship and set it fire. You know, a Viking ....I won't even go there.
These days, the Vikings have a monster run defense, a great young runningback, and little else. Their QB situation is worse than ours, if that tells you anything. I think Orton would start for them hands down. This game being at Soldier Field, look for the Bears to run, run, run, with little success. They'll stick with it though, even if Benson is averaging 1.5 yards per carry. Like last week, it'll set up the pass nicely, leading to a pair of Griese scores, one of which to Olsen. Bears 17, Vikings 7. Only the wrong Peterson breaking a long one will keep this from being a shutout.
Bear down.