Forte: Bears contract talks won't be a distraction
After rushing for 7,704 yards and catching 443 passes for 3,727 yards, Bears running back Matt Forte believes he has earned a new contract, but he's not going to become a distraction if he doesn't get it.
Forte has averaged 1,157 rushing yards over the last three seasons and caught 220 passes while missing just one game. He is entering the final year of the four-year, $30.4 million deal he signed before the 2012 season, and has a base salary for the coming season of $7,050,000.
A contract extension would provide Forte peace of mind and security, but history shows that production by NFL running backs plummets after 30, a milestone Forte will reach in December. His 3.9-yard average per carry last season was his lowest since 2009.
Forte skipped last month's voluntary minicamp, leading to speculation that he was exerting pressure on the Bears for a new deal. He was actually working out then, but he is attending the OTAs (organized team activities) that began Wednesday and says he'll report to training camp on time with or without a new deal.
“Nobody wants to play on a one-year deal, especially with the uncertainty of how football and how it goes,” he said after Wednesday's practice. “You just figure like a guy who's been there since Day One, continues to put in hard work and has produced, you figure that that guy should be rewarded. But in this business that doesn't always happen.”
Forte has been around long enough to realize the business side of the game takes precedence over almost everything, and he accepts that.
“I don't take it out on the coaches or my teammates or anything like that,” he said. “I go out there and I continue to play, just like they're playing and blocking for me. I have to do the same for them.”
Forte's last negotiation with the Bears was testy at times, but he says the current situation is much different. At that time, Forte had played the final year of his rookie contract that paid him $983,000, along with a prorated portion of his $1.53 million signing bonus.
“The situation was (I was) being vastly underpaid,” Forte said. “That's not the situation now, it's more of ... trying to continue my legacy as a Bear and trying to retire that way.”
Forte got 84.8 percent of the carries by Bears running backs last season (266 for 1,038 yards). His 102 receptions led the team, set a franchise record and made him just the second running back in league history with 1,000 rushing yards and 100 receptions.
The Bears have used fourth-round picks in each of the last two drafts on running backs: Jeremy Langford this year and Ka'Deem Carey in 2014, and they signed veteran change-of-pace back Jacquizz Rodgers in free agency.
But Forte says the feedback he has received from new offensive coordinator Adam Gase is that his role will be similar in 2015.
“I knew that the first day when I met Gase and we talked,” Forte said. “So, same as I always have been utilized in the running game and the passing game.”