Bears add veteran RB to the 90-man roster with ties to new RB coach Eric Studesville as competition increases in the backfield
The Chicago Bears have signed former Miami Dolphins running back Salvon Ahmed to the 90-man roster ahead of OTAs to increase competition in the backfield.
Adding competition has been an overarching theme for the Chicago Bears all offseason long and one position that could have benefitted from another addition was at running back heading into organized team activities.
Clearly, head coach Ben Johnson felt the same way. NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported Thursday night that the Bears have signed former Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts running back Salvon Ahmed to the 90-man roster. A fresh opportunity for Ahmed coming off a serious ankle injury with a familiar face now on the staff.
Salvon Ahmed gets to reunite with Eric Studesville, adding competition to the Chicago Bears backfield
Ahmed spent the first four years of his career with the Dolphins, totaling 593 yards and five touchdowns in 38 games. Ahmed’s position coach during those four years in Miami was Eric Studesville, who recently joined Chicago’s coaching staff after losing running backs coach Eric Bieniemy. Having familiarity will help a ton with Ahmed looking to get back on his feet.
He will be joining a running back room that features D’Andre Swift, Kyle Monangai, Brittain Brown, Roschon Johnson, Deion Hankins, and rookie UDFA Coleman Bennett. Ahmed is the second running back Studesville was likely pounding on the table for after what Johnson said about Bennett during rookie minicamp.
“I think that Coach Studesville did a great job identifying a player that’s a darn good football player and instinctive,” Johnson said of Coleman. “He has a knack about him that he we like to use this term, trim the fat, and you can kind of see that when he runs the football, he stays tight to his blockers and when you do that, it’s more glancing blows. So it’s a skill that translates to this level and so we’re really hopeful that he’ll we’ll be able to see that here this weekend and over the course of the spring.”
With the addition of Ahmed, who brings 163 career carries and 110 career special teams snaps, the Bears now have the makings of a competitive RB room with these seven players going into OTAs next week.
The Bears already have Swift and Monangai as the two established starters in the backfield and the team will be evaluating the other five backs to see who can win out the RB3 role going into the season. Ahmed’s familiarity will give him a leg up, but he’ll still have to earn his spot if he wants to stick around.