ITPV » Coach Matt Nagy insisted Jordan Howard remains

LAKE FOREST Womens Sherrick McManis Jersey , Ill. (AP) — a big part of Chicago’s offense and the star running back was adamant he wasn’t frustrated despite a limited role in the most recent victory.“This is not going to be an offense where it’s just one person and it goes through one person,” Nagy said Monday. “I don’t necessarily believe in that. It’s great when you have everybody fulfilling different roles and it’s hard for the defense when you do that.”The Bears (3-1) own sole possession of the NFC North lead for the first time since late in the 2013 season, with three straight wins. Coming off a bye, they hope to keep rolling when they visit Miami on Sunday.Chicago matched its longest win streak since a 3-0 start in 2013 with a 48-10 romp over Tampa Bay two weeks ago. Mitchell Trubisky broke out with six touchdown passes — one shy of the NFL record. Tarik Cohen added a career-high 121 yards receiving to go with 53 rushing, and the Bears came away with their most lopsided victory in six years.As good as that sounds for Chicago, something else stood out: Howard’s small role.He carried 11 times for 25 yards and was in on 33 of 61 plays. Howard didn’t talk to reporters after that game, and players were not available to the media until Monday.“No, I wasn’t frustrated,” Howard said. “I was happy. We won. You see how much we won by. So there’s not really nothing to complain about.”With more than 2,600 yards rushing since the Bears took him in the fifth round in 2016, Howard has been one of general manager Ryan Pace’s most successful draft picks. He ran for 1,122 yards last season after finishing second in the NFL with 1,313 as a rookie.But there were also questions how he would fit in Nagy’s system after struggling in the passing game his first two seasons. Howard’s name came up in offseason trade rumors, and Bears-related photos disappeared from his Instagram account at one point, though he insisted there was nothing to it and wouldn’t acknowledge removing the pictures.Howard has shown improvement catching the ball but hasn’t found a rhythm running it. With 203 yards on 64 attempts, he is averaging 3.2 per attempt. That’s well below his career average of 4.5 yards.Howard has run the ball 15 times or less in three of the four games and hasn’t rushed for more than 82 yards this season.“Jordan understands what we’re trying to do as a team,” Nagy said. “And he also understands, and we’ve talked Charles Leno Jersey , that he has a major part of this offense. He has a big-time role. But if it’s an advantage to us to go a different direction for that game or for that play or that series, we’re going to do that.”It’s hard to argue with what the Bears did against Tampa Bay. They saw an opening against a banged-up secondary and got huge games from Trubisky and Cohen, even if it meant a light day for Howard.“The majority of the games, he gets more workload than I do,” Cohen said. “He understands some games are different. We felt like their secondary was banged-up, so that’s what happened, we’re gonna attack them.”That’s something they probably couldn’t have done last season. But the Bears brought in more play-making pass catchers and hired an offense-minded coach after firing John Fox.They have more options now and don’t necessarily need to rely on the run as much.“If we want to put him in the game and use him for a certain advantage, we’ll do that and that could be first, second or third down,” Nagy said. “There’s other times where it doesn’t fit that way. It just so happened this past game that … Tarik got more plays in regards to getting the ball to him, and he was productive. But that has nothing to do with what Jordan Howard is doing. Jordan Howard is a big part of this offense.”NOTES: WR Anthony Miller (shoulder) and CB Prince Amukamara (hamstring) did light work at practice. Both players sat out the Tampa Bay game. … The Bears placed LB Sam Acho (torn pectoral muscle) on injured reserve and signed OL Bryan Witzmann. George Taliaferro, the star Indiana running back who in 1949 became the first black player drafted in the NFL when George Halas and the Chicago Bears took him in the 13th round, has died. He was 91.The university spoke with Taliaferro's family about his death in Mason, Ohio, senior associate athletic director Jeremy Gray said Tuesday. Other details were not disclosed.Taliaferro was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981. In the NFL, he played seven positions and earned Pro Bowl honors in 1951-53.He was the leading rusher on Indiana's 1945 Big Ten championship team that went 9-0-1, the only undefeated team in school history. During his four years in Bloomington he led the Hoosiers in rushing twice and passing once.It wasn't an easy transition — the segregation in Bloomington was jarring — and Taliaferro told the Indianapolis Star he once called his father in Gary, Indiana http://www.thebearslockerroom.com/authentic-joel-iyiegbuniwe-jersey , and suggested he might come home and work together in one of the U.S. Steel plants. His dad wouldn't hear of it."I lay awake all night trying to figure ... out ... why ... he wouldn't help me," Taliaferro told the Star. "And it came to me: That for the first 18 years of my life, every day I left my father and mother's house to go to school, they told me two things: 'We love you; you must be educated.' It came to me that the other reason for my being at Indiana University ... on the campus at Bloomington ... Indiana — was to be educated."Indiana said university President Herman Wells once intervened with a local restaurant to make sure he and Taliaferro would be able to eat there. When the manager balked, Wells said he would make the restaurant off limits to the student body and the manager relented.The Bears selected Taliaferro with the 129th overall pick — a potential dream come true for the Gary native who grew up following the Bears. The problem was that Taliaferro had signed a week before the draft with the Los Angeles Dons of the rival All America Football Conference, which had welcomed black players since its debut in 1946.Taliaferro told the Dayton Daily News last year he thought about returning his $4,000 signing bonus to the Dons in hopes it would clear the way for an NFL career, but then spoke with his mother."She said, 'What did you promise your father?'" Taliaferro told the Dayton Daily News. "I knew right away. I had to be a man of my word, so I never even bothered getting back to George Halas and the Bears."Taliaferro rushed for 472 yards and five touchdowns and passed for another 790 yards and four scores in his rookie season with the Dons in 1949. The AAFC merged with the NFL the following season and Taliaferro ended up with the New York Yanks for the 1950 season. Taliaferro rushed for 411 yards and four touchdowns and caught another 21 passes for 299 yards and five scores for the Yanks, leading the team in touchdowns and helping them to a 7-5 record.Taliaferro spent five more years in the NFL. He totaled 2,266 rushing yards, 1,300 receiving yards, 1,633 passing yards and accounted for 37 touchdowns while playing for franchises in New York, Dallas, Baltimore and Philadelphia. He lined up at quarterback Womens Nick Kwiatkoski Jersey , running back, wide receiver, punter, kick returner, punt returner and defensive back.Taliaferro later earned a master's degree at Howard University, taught at Maryland and served as dean of students at Morgan State. At Indiana, he also spent two decades serving his alma mater in a number of capacities, including as a special assistant to the president, IUPUI chancellor and dean of School of Social Work. He was also active in helping the Children's Organ Transplant Association.Flags on the Bloomington campus were lowered to half-staff through this weekend's homecoming game against Iowa. Taliaferro's No. 44 will replace the traditional logo on Indiana players' helmets for the game and there will be a moment of silence before kickoff."He was a mentor to me, and, like all great mentors, was often one who was appropriately challenging me," athletic director Fred Glass said. "Simply put, he was a great man and will be greatly missed."Indiana said Taliaferro is survived by his wife of 67 years, Viola, and two daughters.Funeral arrangements were pending.