Chicago Bears 2015 Draft Prospects: Running Backs

Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bears have many questions on the roster. While many of them involve who will they get to play in key slots, there is one question that involves someone playing well. In the final year of his contract and entering age 29, will the team decide to part ways with

? If so, there are some prospects in this draft who could be attractive replacements.

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The Chicago Bears have many holes in their roster. They feel they plugged up some of them through free agency, and hope to do more of that in the draft.

While dealing with those holes, other questions arise. General manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox have to keep an eye on the future.

One such question that they need to address is what to do with Matt Forte.

Forte is in the final year of his contract, and he is 29 years old, right around the time most running backs fall off the cliff in their production.

Yes, Matt Forte is in great shape. He is one of the elite running backs and he was one of the few Bears to have a very good season in 2014. But people were saying the same thing about Chris Johnson, who had 1,000-yard seasons in every season of his career (including a 2,000 season), then fell off to 663 yards in 2014, and is now dodging bullets and not defenders.

Forte has a lot of mileage as well. In seven seasons, he has 1,817 rushing attempts and 443 receptions for a total of 2,260 touches. If you add to that the targets, and he’s been involved in 2,396 plays.

The Bears will need to decide if Forte’s body can continue to take the pounding and still be productive. They will need to make that decision now so they can prepare for the future.

If they decided that giving Forte another big contract may be out of the discussion, there are good options available to them. They do have Ka’Deem Carey from last year’s draft, and this year’s draft has some attractive replacements to Forte. The Bears may decide to go with more than one back to keep them healthy.

Here are some good running back options available for the Bears if they decide to move on from Forte:

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