People were really upset when the Chicago Bears concluded their offseason without a significant addition at running back. Only Kyle Monangai, a 7th round pick, was added. That meant D’Andre Swift would be the starter for another season, barring an unexpected move. It made no sense. The running back had averaged 3.8 yards per carry in 2024. Everybody knew about his limitations, particularly regarding his size (5’8 “, 204 lbs) and vision. Head coach Ben Johnson had already signed off on trading him a few years back in Detroit. Why choose to stay the course now?
Those concerns seemed well-founded through the first month of the season. Swift averaged just 3.3 yards per carry, on track for the worst of his career. Then a miracle happened. The Bears’ running game emerged from the bye week completely different, and Swift was at the forefront. He is now averaging 5.7 yards per carry in the past five games, leaving experts baffled. Nate Tice of Yahoo Sports summed it up perfectly. What Johnson and his staff are doing is nothing short of a coaching masterclass.
It’s the most efficient run game in the NFL right now, and arguably the best Bears offense of this millennium, if not longer, that can also generate big gains with regularity. And they’re doing it with D’Andre Swift — a running back with what I’ll call “iffy” vision as a runner — and a seventh-round rookie in Kyle Monangai.
Not only are Johnson and offensive line coach Dan Roushar molding their offense to fit their blockers, they’re running plays that fit their rushers, too. Swift is a good athlete who can struggle to read plays between the tackles, so the Bears started to work more runs to the outside with toss zone plays and windback concepts.
D’Andre Swift serves as an important reminder about the NFL.
A player struggling doesn’t always mean he’s worthless. Many times in this league, it is often the case that the coaches do not use him correctly. We saw that after Leonard Floyd left Chicago to join the Rams, where he immediately became a productive pass rusher. That has become the case for D’Andre Swift. Johnson recognized what they were asking the running back to do wasn’t working. So they spent the bye week pinpointing what plays worked best for him and redesigned the offense around that.
This is what having a competent head coach is like. Previous Bears coaches never would’ve done something like that. They would’ve just kept asking Swift to stick with the plan or benched him for somebody else. Not Johnson. He had no intention of wasting a valuable resource. Adjusting the scheme was far easier. Now the Bears keep benefitting.
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