Fantasy /By Tom Borrelli
Benson’s departure leaves a spot open for Forte
Matt Forte probably isn’t a name familiar to many fantasy football players but it may be very soon.
Forte, a second-round pick by the Chicago Bears from Tulane, will begin his NFL career without the hype heaped upon fellow rookies Darren McFadden of the Oakland Raiders, Jonathan Stewart of the Carolina Panthers and Felix Jones of the Dallas Cowboys.
But Forte, who was the sixth back chosen and the 44th overall pick, has a chance to be the man from the first day of training camp after the release of troubled Cedric Benson, who was a bust as the Bears’ starter last season.
The 6-foot-1, 217-pound Forte’s Green Wave experience was a two-chapter career. As a senior, he started all 12 games and piled up 2,007 yards and 22 touchdowns on 336 carries, good enough to rank second in the nation in rushing behind Kevin Smith of Central Florida, who gained 2,567 yards on 450 attempts. Forte became the 11th player in NCAA history to crack 2,000 rushing yards in a season.
Forte caught 29 passes for 257 yards and was a regular on coverage units.
He enjoyed an incredible four-game stretch in the middle of last season, gaining 1,031 yards, with 202 against Army, 209 against UAB, 342 against Southern Methodist and 278
versus Memphis. He also rushed for 303 yards on 40 attempts against Southeastern Louisiana and cracked triple digits nine times.
But during his first three seasons at Tulane, Forte played in 31 games, starting 18, and rushed for 2,138 yards and 16 scores on 472 attempts.
“We like the running backs we have right now,” Bears coach Lovie Smith recently told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We don’t have any plans to [sign another one].”
Forte, who finished as Tulane’s career leader with 99.2 rushing yards per game, 39 rushing TDs and 44 total TDs, was also second with 5,261 all-purpose yards, 4,265 rushing yards and 833 rushing attempts.
“This is a great opportunity to come in and make a mark,” Forte told the Chicago Tribune. “I know their running back situation and I have a chance to come in and compete.”
Forte should be monitored closely in training camp and in preseason because he’s far from a lock to start against the Indianapolis Colts on Sept.
7. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.47 seconds at the NFL Combine so he certainly isn’t a huge breakaway threat. Plus, the Bears ranked 27th — or fifth from the bottom — in the league in offense last season.
“What he gives us is a big back, a three-down back,” Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo said last week. “He has enough speed to get to the outside. And he has the ability to make people miss at the second level. And those were two areas where we never really could find any consistency, which made us an easy team to defend.”
