Last year, after the Bears drafted a running back to challenge for his job, Ka’Deem Carey started his first NFL game, scored his first touchdown and finally figured out the subtlety of special teams.

Last month, he saw the Bears draft another running back.

Again.

“You just gotta get better,” he said. “You just gotta keep working.”

Carey is as motivated by the Bears’ fifth-round choice of Indiana’s Jordan Howard as he was in 2015, when the team took Michigan State’s Jeremy Langford in the fourth round.

This time, however, he’s not as perplexed.

“The first time it happened, I didn’t understand what was going on — what they saw, how does this work, and why,” he said. “Now I know how it works.

“So I can sit down and swallow that and go out here and help this younger dude to become the back he wants to be. And by helping him, it makes me a better back, because I just learn so much more.”

Where that leaves Carey — amazingly, the Bears’ longest-tenured running back — is a different question.

Langford appears the likely starter, though Carey has impressed his coaches with his rushing during organized team activities at Halas Hall.

“[Carey] is an example of playing with a passion, carrying the flag of the culture of the organization, playing reckless, hard and never taking for granted the opportunity that he has on a daily basis,” running backs coach Stan Drayton said. “He’s that guy,”

The Bears maintain their rotation will highlight each player’s strengths, but Howard — who is 20 pounds heavier than the 210-pound Carey — seems to have replaced him as the team’s bruiser.

The Bears someone who can “wear a defense down,” said Drayton, who hinted Howard could take on more responsibility as needed.

Carey, though, sees a place for both of them.

“He still has different things that I can do that he can’t, and he can do stuff, things that I can’t,” said Carey, who cut his body fat from 6 percent to 3 percent and worked on running and blocking lower this offseason. “I mean, we’ll still balance each other out. “There’s no exact same type of running back. I still think I got wiggles. I think I can make a dude miss in the open field, stuff like that, that I still haven’t shown.”

He didn’t have much of a chance to.

As a rookie, Carey had only eight carries for 28 yards during the final eight games of 2014. He didn’t touch the ball in the Bears’ first seven games under John Fox, either. Inactive in three of the first four games last year, his career seemed in jeopardy.

With Matt Forte hurt, though, he served as the surprise starter — carrying seven times for 28 yards — in Week 8. In five games last year, he carried seven or more times.

Carey played 64 special teams snaps, too, and said he finally feels comfortable there after being puzzled as a rookie. He’ll need that skill to beat out specialists Senorise Perry and Jacquizz Rodgers for a roster spot — though the Bears could, conceivably, keep two of the three.

“Now I know what they’re talking about,” Carey said. “For two years, I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ But now I’ve gotten to go out there and play and getting a good feel for it, so I’m actually enjoying (it) and cannot wait to go out there and earn some spots on special teams.”

Coach John Fox admires his approach. At the NFL Scouting Combine, of all places, Fox argued Carey was proof there was more to the game than measurables.

“Sometimes a lot gets put into height, weight, speed, 40, and a lot of times it’s hard to measure what’s behind that left nipple and between your ears,” Fox said of Carey, who ran a 4.70 40-yard dash at the Combine. “I think he’s a guy that after contact is pretty special.”

Tight end Zach Miller joked that he knows when Carey is in the game.

“I’ve got to watch out,” he said. “Specifically so he doesn’t run right up the back of you — because that guy runs with his head down and delivers a blow.”

Carey will spend the next three months fighting for the opportunity to do just that.

“When I have the football, I don’t feel like anybody can tackle me,” he said. “You just gotta think that every play when you have the ball — nobody can tackle you. I don’t care if they get you in the backfield, you better fight to get to the line of scrimmage.”