Dec 7th 2008 2:00PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Bears, Jaguars, NFL Real Talk
Matt Forte has had an incredible season already, piling up tons of yardage for the Chicago Bears and somehow making Kyle Orton’s return to glory seem less surprising, if only because of how competent and tough he’s been as a rookie.
And, less than a quarter into the Bears game against the Jaguars today, Forte broke Gale Sayers’ record for total yards from scrimmage by a Bears rookie. Sayers, of course, was a legend in the NFL and in 1965 piled up a pretty astounding 1,374 total yards from scrimmage as a rookie with Chicago.
He did that in 14 games, compiling 867 rushing yards and a beastly 507 receiving yards while finding the end zone a whopping 20 times that season.
Forte hasn’t had as much touchdown success (but that’s easy — just blame Lovie Smith if you need a scapegoat) but he has now broken Sayers record, and even more impressively, he’s done it in the same number of games. I point that out because often times these days, people like to question whether or not the extended schedules really make certain milestones worthy of being broken without utilizing the same number of games.
But that doesn’t apply to Forte, who, with this rookie year, has established himself as the likely steal of the 2008 NFL draft — certainly in terms of running backs drafted — and the future offensive cornerstone for the Bears franchise.
