Was week 4 Tarik Cohen’s coming out party? (1 Viewer)

[Saboo]

I wasn’t able to see the Bears game this weekend, but strictly going by the numbers Cohen blew up. 

I was quite surprised at his limited usuage thus far in the season. Cohen had a bigger role than Howard in week 4...Is it likely that Cohen sees a much bigger role going forward? Could he be the RB to own in Chicago given Howard’s struggles to this point?

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Sure, if you expect Mitch Trubisky to put up 300+ yards and 6 TDs through 3 quarters every game going forward. 

I think Cohen is what he is. A high variance committee/receiving back that will put up 3-10/4-22 when you have him in for a month and then blow up for a game like this as soon as you sit him. 

 

[Saboo]

Your points are all valid, but with Howard being so pedestrian I think Cohen is worth the speculative addition.

As a Howard owner I wasn’t thrilled to see Cohen get 20 total touches. 

 

[SameSongNDance]

He was utilized a career high 21 times last week. I'm treating it as an outlier unless he proves otherwise. 

 

[Khy]

He was utilized a career high 21 times last week. I'm treating it as an outlier unless he proves otherwise. 

See, I disagree. I think what we're seeing is Nagy realize that Cohen fits his scheme and style better than Howard. Nagy is from the Andy Reid school, where north/south running is secondary to a RB who can work with the ball in space. Howard is a great downhill runner, but he's pedestrian in open space. Something tells me you're going to see this become more of a committee where Cohen is seeing 10 carries and 5-8 targets a game through the air. That's not a ton of work, but with his talent, it's enough to make him a low-end RB2 at worst in PPR.

 

[steelers1080]

Short answer, no. He'll have monster games, but this game is an anomaly. 

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

I am a Howard owner, and if you don't have Cohen you need to get him.  Not saying Cohen takes over from here out, but this situation doesn't bode well for having only one half of a RBBC.  At this point if you have Howard and not Cohen it might be time to seeing what you can get in trade with the Cohen owner for your Howard.

 

[need2know]

No

 

[Underachievers]

Yes.....he is now taking a backseat to Cohen.  Howard has been given the chance for 2 years and he's failed to step it up.   

 

[zftcg]

I am a Howard owner, and if you don't have Cohen you need to get him.  Not saying Cohen takes over from here out, but this situation doesn't bode well for having only one half of a RBBC.  At this point if you have Howard and not Cohen it might be time to seeing what you can get in trade with the Cohen owner for your Howard.

Why? What benefit do you get from owning both?

 

[Elevencents]

He was utilized a career high 21 times last week. I'm treating it as an outlier unless he proves otherwise. 

I hesitantly agree. Part of me thinks this is an outlier (as much as Mitch’s 6 TDs were) and it will be back to normal game script starting next week where Cohen gets a handful of touches but is still a good flex play. Another part of me thinks maybe something will click with Nagy and they’ll start to feature him more. I think the Bears organization likes Howard and aren’t in a rush to switch things up. 

ETA: Looking back, Howard was #8 and #15 in my league the last two years so he has obviously produced. His YPC isn’t so hot the last 3 games but YPC isn’t the end all. 

 

[tackle for loss]

I made this post below in another thread, I think it applies here-

Tampa had a D that likes to funnel the runners outside, I guess that why they used Cohen more. Kamara got TB on the outside, he only ran 8/29/2. Clement and Ajayi got stuffed up the gut too, they ran for 6/30/1 and 7/23/1 respectively. Conner went 15/61/0...all the RB damage has come out of the passing game against he TB Def this year. Kamara 9/112/1 and Clement 5/55/0 and Conner 5/34. With the exception of TDs, which none happen to come yesterday for Howard, they have controlled the RB while "running" quiet well for the most part, I guess this is what Nagy saw. The statements that Howard needs to be in a Blount roll with his history is crazy to me. Slow down on the panic on Howard, football is a matchup game. As you may have watched, Nagy planned right. McCoy is not slouch up the middle you know. I was down in Tampa this past week, some people pointed this out to me.

I just read above that someone said Howard hasnt stepped it up? He ran for over 1k each of his first 2 seasons. Maybe that hot take should be cooled off.

 

[djmich]

I think the easy answer is that over the next few weeks Cohen will be used more than he was the first three weeks, that performance demands it.  How much more depends on how he (and the Bears) performs in those games

Even if he does perform well I think game flow and game script /matchup will still give him a low floor, but I could see him splitting carries routinely and dominating catches.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

Why? What benefit do you get from owning both?

Hedging your bet - if you have roster space.  To me Cohen is just a ppr flyer and Howard is a td dependent player.  Neither is really a valid RB1 or RB2 that you can count on week to week.

 

[Bfrahm3]

Not really, anyone who had faith in Cohen at the beginning of the year knew he was capable of games like this. The big thing will be if they consistently target him in the passing game going forward, if they do then I guess you could say this game might have helped get him going but I think the plan at the beginning of the year was to use him like they did Sunday but it just hadn’t worked out like that yet.

 

[btemp]

Well considering the Yuccaneers defence got beat 4 times on wheel routes (3 for TDs) I'd say Cohen's success had a lot more to do with the utter incompetence of the Bears opponent. 

 

[oddsbodkins]

Jordan Howard or Tarik Cohen? Coach says Bears’ RB usage will change ‘by game’

Now, we just have to figure out which games are his and which are Howard's!

 

[Milkman]

No because they will never give him consistent touches. 

 

[foxco]

Yes.....he is now taking a backseat to Cohen.  Howard has been given the chance for 2 years and he's failed to step it up.   

Yes, those 2 1k seasons to start his career and 4.5 ypc on awful teams really stunk up the joint.

 

[Joe Summer]

Is he a better option ROS than a 2nd-tier starter?

 

[Saboo]

Yes, those 2 1k seasons to start his career and 4.5 ypc on awful teams really stunk up the joint.

Howard is a solid player, but at least in week 4the offense looked far more dynamic with Cohen on the field. 

 

[Milkman]

Howard is a solid player, but at least in week 4the offense looked far more dynamic with Cohen on the field. 

That doesn't matter because Nagy sucks. I agree though.....

 

[jvdesigns2002]

If anything--cohen's week 4 performance had opened up a 2 week window to buy Howard low.  We are approximately halfway though that window with the Bears on bye this week.  I'm not saying that Cohen can't or won't be good--but his performance seems to have softened the stance of much of the fantasy community in regards to Howard. I think it's wiser to look to buy howard low as opposed to overpaying for Cohen after one really monster game.