One niche player Chicago Bears could use to assist running game

One of the players on the Bears roster looking like a curiosity piece as much as anything else is wide receiver Miles Boykin.

The former Providence Catholic and Notre Dame standout brought no great NFL history as a pass receiver or runner after the catch to the Bears as a former Ravens and Steelers player.

Boykin does bring something no other wide receiver can except Rome Odunze and that's great size with an ability to block.

At 6-foot-4, he also is 220 pounds, Boykin can be a load to try to bring down for defensive backs and it helps him in special teams play, too.

Boykin only has 38 catches in five NFL seasons, so his receiving statistics are somewhat less than prodigious. He has only six receptions since 2020. Yet, he has managed to stay on an NFL roster for four years since his 19 catches in 2020 for the Ravens, last year only as a Seahawks practice squad player after the Giants had signed and cut him.

Why the Bears would even use the 90-man roster space for someone who has been used so little as a pass catcher at wide receiver is easily answered both in their own past and by something coach Ben Johnson said.

"No block, no rock," was his comment to wide receivers.

Boykin is a receiver who displayed an ability to use his great size to help running games and screen games. In the Bears' own past, they had a player with this skillset from the same school—Equanimeous St. Brown. While St. Brown did get occasionally targeted, his big asset was blocking in the wide zone scheme but also overall.

They didn't have St. Brown last year and DJ Moore was their most effective run blocker acccordin to Pro Football Focus, ranking 25th out of 138 receivers at run blocking.

In 2019 as a rookie, Boykin threw run blocks on 245 plays, only 19 less than Ravens monster fullback Patrick Ricard, the defensive lineman who gets moved to offense to help smash opposing defenses as a blocker. Ricard and blocking tight end Nick Boyle were the only non-offensive linemen on that team with higher blocking grades on running plays than Boykin, according to PFF blocking grades.

The next year, Boykin blocked even more on running plays and was even more effective. He had a 77.9 run blocking grade on the PFF scale, third best for anyone on the team and the highest grade for anyone who had more than 133 run blocks. He threw 320 run blocks then.

The next year Boykin missed half the season with hamstring and finger injuries and then was waived, signed in the offseason with the Steelers and brought the same level of quality blocking in the run game there for one season. They used him less but he threw 102 run blocks and had the highest run blocking grade of any player on the team with more than nine plays on offense. He had a higher run blocking grade than any of the starting offensive linemen.

He was nowhere near as effective in 2023 and was cut, then wound up with the Giants and then Seattle last year.

It's difficult to see how the Bears could justify Boykin on the 53-man roster when they'll have difficulty fitting in all the receivers they have who actually have caught more passes in the past.

Then again, it wouldn't be past Johnson to stash a player like this on the practice squad and call him back up on a weekly basis when they needed someone for a game plan as a destructive blocker on the outside in the screen or running game.

That is, unless Boykin actually can prove he belongs on the regular roster.

Boykin had a rather quiet offseason but as Johnson frequently pointed out, little can be seen in the blocking game until the pads come on.

For this season, it might be a case of no block, no rock, but in Boykin's case it might be a case of rocking the guys trying to tackle the guy with the rock that earns him a role with this team.