The following is part of a series of position-by-position breakdowns at the halftime point of the 2014 season.

Matt Forte

If the Chicago Bears were 5-3 instead of 3-5 there would be pronounced, serious support for Matt Forte as the league’s most valuable player. He’s second in the league in receptions. He’s got over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. He’s got 6 touchdowns. Most importantly he has put the Bears offense on his back. They are the twentieth ranked scoring offense in the league. Without him they would probably be dead last…by a wide margin.

It was written at length when the Bears hired Trestman the players to benefit most would be the quarterback (whisssssper) and Forte, who is a far more talented version of Charlie Garner, a player who posted career years in the passing game under Trest. The former has yet to come fruition. The latter has exceeded fan expectations by a significant amount. One needed only to listen to Emery and Trest’s media session Monday to understand how the organization views Forte’s performance over the first eight games. They made it very clear featuring Forte would be the most important goal of the season’s second half.

One glitch? Forte’s fumble against Carolina was a nightmare moment for a player unused to such things. But it nailed the Bears coffin shut that afternoon. Other than this moment of fallibility, Forte has been the Bears best player through eight games.

Grade: A

(Note: I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Ka’Deem Carey but we don’t have enough information to evaluate his performance.)