While other players were watching or participating in punt drills during Saturday's second practice of training camp in Bourbonnais, Jordan Howard saw it as an opportunity to work on part of his game.

The running back instead used that time to work on pass-catching with a coach as he hopes to improve on an important area of his game that he has struggled on in the past.

“Definitely it’s important to me, just building my confidence more and more with catching the ball and working my body," Howard said. "It’s definitely important to me.”

Howard is entering his third season with the Bears and has been one of the top rushers in the NFL since his arrival in 2016. Despite rushing for 2,435 yards in 31-career games, good for third in the NFL since 2016, it seems like Howard still doesn't get the respect he deserves. He has struggled a bit with pass-catching duties and no drop was bigger than the one he had late in the Week 1 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 that would have been a touchdown to give the Bears the lead.

But this offseason, he made it a priority to change one thing when it comes to catching the ball.

“I definitely have improved my hand placement," Howard said. "I used to have my hands all over the place, but now my coach London is working with me on my hand placement and looking the ball in."

The offseason has been an unusual one for Howard as Bears-related photos vanished from his Instagram, there was a trade rumor about him going to Miami and some criticism about his drops.

Howard has dropped 14 passes over his two seasons in the NFL including six last season. While not all are his fault as some were thrown behind him, the majority of them did hit the running back right in the hands, including all six from 2017.

The Bears have only held two practices thus far in Bourbonnais but I haven't seen Howard drop a pass yet out of the backfield. During Saturday's session in the rain, Howard caught both of his targets in 11-on-11 drills, showing some signs that he may have improved.

Head coach Matt Nagy is hoping that Howard has made that improvement and already sees a role carved up for the running back despite many believing he doesn't fit in this system.

"Obviously, there’s this façade out there, there’s this notion that he is just a first-and second-down back, and I don’t believe that," Nagy said. "Jordan can play all three downs. We’re gonna do that. we’re gonna use him. and we’re gonna use other guys on first and second down when we need to. for us, it’s important for Jordan to know and for everybody on our offense to know that he’s a big part of this. This kid’s had a very successful career so far. We’re crazy as coaches and as offensive coaches if we don’t understand it and if we don’t use that to our advantage."

If Howard can improve those hands and get better at pass-catching, it will could pay dividends for this Bears offense in 2018.