Bears to activate RB Herbert (ankle) off IR

Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff WriterNov 17, 2023, 04:51 PM ET
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears will activate running back Khalil Herbert off injured reserve Saturday, coach Matt Eberflus announced.

Herbert, 25, injured an ankle in Chicago’s Week 5 win at Washington and missed the Bears’ last five games. At the time of his injury, he was averaging 5.3 yards per carry and led the Bears in rushing with 272 yards.

Chicago waived running back Darrynton Evans on Thursday, which creates an opening on the 53-man roster for Herbert.

The Bears fortified their top-five rushing attack in Herbert’s absence by relying on veteran D’Onta Foreman, who has been inactive Weeks 2-5. Since his first start against the Raiders in Week 6, Foreman has totaled 351 rushing yards on 81 carries (4.3 YPC) — a team high — to go along with three rushing touchdowns and one TD catch.

Foreman injured his ankle against the Panthers and was limited in three days of practice ahead of Week 11 and is questionable for Sunday’s game. Though the running back told ESPN that his injury is progressing in the right direction, a decision on whether he’ll play against the Lions will be taken “all the way up until Sunday.”

Foreman and Herbert have only played in one game together, which was a Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The prospect of having the backfield at full strength serves as motivation for Foreman.

“Before Khalil got hurt, he was out there running the ball really well,” Foreman said. “And I think that also motivated me and helped me when I got my opportunity to go in there and be just as good if not better. Just trying to match the intensity so you wouldn’t feel a difference from who was back there. That was kind of my mindset. Whenever we do actually get a chance to play together, we never really got a chance to really play together. I think that’ll be exciting for sure.”

Herbert was a full participant in the practices (including walk-throughs) leading into the Panthers and Lions games. He was not activated last week after his 21-day window opened to come off of injured reserve after hoping to return against Carolina.

“I’m playing this week, so that’s all that matters,” Herbert said.

Eberflus noted how “strong” Herbert looked in practice this week and that the team would determine today whether he would need to have a reduced load in his first start since Oct. 5.

“If he is on a pitch count, we feel great about Foreman, Roschon [Johnson], we feel great about those guys carrying the load or carrying part of the duty,” Eberflus said. “But Herbert’s looked really well this week.”

With an abundance of healthy running backs, the Bears are working to determine how they will split carries among their top three rushers. The load Foreman carried in Herbert’s absence (Foreman most recently led Chicago with a team-high 23 touches and 92 total yards against Carolina) is notable to Bears coaches, who aim to find a balance in how they’ll deploy their running backs against Detroit’s No. 3 run defense.

“… We find that balance by the production as we go and the flow of the game,” Eberflus said. “We’ll certainly have a plan for that in terms of reps, but tactically you look and see, OK, who’s hot, who’s running it the right way and then getting guys involved. It’s our job to get both guys involved because they’ve both played well.

“Certainly, Khalil played really well when he was in there, and D’Onta coming in there has done very nice for us. Different style of runners, which I think is cool, to be able to throw that at a defense. It’s always hard to defend against different types and they both run the same type of runs, which is also pretty neat. It’s a fortunate thing to have.”