The Bears may have one of the league’s best one-two punches in the backfield, but not everyone is ready to rank D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai at the top.
After a season that showed just how well patience can pay off in Chicago, the duo put together numbers that made plenty of people take notice. Swift posted a career year with 1,087 yards and nine touchdowns, while Monangai delivered 783 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. That kind of production has pushed many offseason rankings to place them among the NFL’s top running back tandems.
Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame isn’t quite there. He slotted the Bears at No. 4, even while acknowledging how effective Chicago’s ground game was under Ben Johnson.
"With Ben Johnson as the team’s coach, the Bears were expected to run the ball effectively after watching him scheme up Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery in Detroit. As it turns out, those expectations were correct.
Chicago ran its way to the NFC North title with an 11-6 record behind Swift and Monangai, with the former rushing for 1,087 yards while the latter, a seventh-round rookie, picked up 783 yards. No back who ranked second in rushing yards on his own team had more than Monangai.
Going into 2026, the Bears are hoping quarterback Caleb Williams becomes the first man in franchise history to throw for 4,000 yards. If he does, that’ll open up the rushing lanes even more for Swift and Monangai as Johnson’s scheme expands in his second campaign with Chicago."
Verderame’s top three included the Los Angeles Rams at No. 1 with Kyren Williams and Blake Corum, the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 2 with Rico Dowdle and Jaylen Warren, and the New Orleans Saints at No. 3 with Travis Etienne Jr. and Alvin Kamara.
The Rams pairing is the one that stands out most as the consensus favorite for the top spot. The other two, though, leave room for debate.
Dowdle is headed to a new team and will need time to get comfortable in the offense, while Warren still hasn’t reached his full ceiling as a starter. Kamara, meanwhile, has had durability issues, and Etienne has flashed at times without putting together the kind of season that truly changes the conversation.
What makes Swift and Monangai so appealing is the contrast. Swift brings the burst and the edge speed, while Monangai gives Chicago the physical, downhill style that can punish defenses between the tackles. It’s the kind of mix teams spend years trying to build.
For Bears fans, the message is simple: the backfield that helped power an 11-6 season and an NFC North title may still be climbing. And if Caleb Williams takes the next step in 2026, Chicago’s run game could be even tougher to handle.
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By 2026, the Bears were no longer carrying the kind of dead-money burden that once limited their options, and that matters because it changes how a team can plan beyond the next offseason. Chicago is now in position to keep extending its young core without having to claw out of another cap hole first, even as the current roster direction continues to evolve under Ben Johnson. The cleanup is not just a bookkeeping win. It gives the Bears room to make real football decisions instead of cap-driven compromises. [Read more 🡒]
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The secondary is still the clearest place where those decisions could pay off, especially with roles not fully settled yet and camp still ahead to sort out the pecking order. The backfield has a similar feel, with another running back in the mix to challenge for the RB3 job and a few uncertain futures hanging over that competition, which makes these low-key moves worth watching once the pads come on. [Read more 🡒]
Bears Made A Secondary Gamble That Could Decide Everything
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Now the burden falls on Dennis Allen to stitch the group together quickly enough to matter. The good news for Chicago is that Ben Johnsons offense should help keep the defense from being asked to carry too much too soon, but the real question is whether this gamble in the secondary can hold up once the games start counting and the rotation gets tested. [Read more 🡒]