Insider’s proposed Cowboys trade lands intriguing Bears $1.1 million role player
The Chicago Bears are in a position they haven’t been familiar with much in the past half-decade: fighting for the NFL playoffs.
Currently riding a three-game winning streak, the Bears are sitting pretty at 4-2. They have an exciting rookie quarterback in Caleb Williams, a talented group of skill players rounding out the offense and a ball-hawking defense that has the second-most takeaways in football.
Things are so good for the Bears, in fact, that there are talented players on the roster who aren’t seeing the field. Rather than letting those players go to waste, the Bears could look to load up on draft capital at the trade deadline by sending their reserves to teams in need.
The Dallas Cowboys have such a need at running back, where the tandem of Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle isn’t producing much yardage. ESPN insider Bill Barnwell proposed that the Cowboys could acquire Bears running back Khalil Herbert at the deadline for a 2025 sixth-round pick.
“Dallas didn’t address its running game in the offseason, and it is struggling on the ground. Ezekiel Elliott has been mostly phased out of the rotation, leaving Rico Dowdle, who has generated minus-18 rush yards over expected (RYOE) in a relatively quiet start to the season,” Barnwell said.
“There’s no Derrick Henry lurking as an immediately impactful back, but what about adding another set of fresh legs to compete with Dowdle? Herbert is probably not the sort of back to shoulder a workload of 20 carries per game, but among the 46 players with 300 carries or more between 2021 and 2023, his 4.9 yards-per-carry average ranks seventh.”
With D’Andre Swift as the clear starter and Roschon Johnson as his primary backup, Herbert has been almost completely phased out of the Bears offense. He has only eight carries and two targets on the season, and has played only six snaps in the past three games combined.
However, Herbert has also shown himself to be a perfectly capable NFL running back. He had 1,342 rushing yards and 1,533 total scrimmage yards in 25 games from 2022-2023, including 10 starts for Chicago.
If the Bears can land a draft pick for Herbert instead of losing him for nothing this spring, that’s a huge win for general manager Ryan Poles. And perhaps the Cowboys will be desperate enough to make such a trade become a reality.
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