Bear Digest

Kyle Monangai and D'Andre Swift make statement about a trade with play

The Bears running game and their own close up look at Alvin Kamara Sunday make clear the best course of action in terms of the running backs trade market.
Gene Chamberlain|
Saints running back Alvin Kamara is swarmed by Jaquan Brisker and the Bears defense in Sunday's 26-14 Chicago win.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara is swarmed by Jaquan Brisker and the Bears defense in Sunday's 26-14 Chicago win. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Of all the things the Bears accomplished with their play in Sunday's 26-14 win over the Saints, one near the bottom of the list but important nonetheless was shortening the potential trade list for general manager Ryan Poles.

For weeks as the Bears struggled to get their running game moving, they've been urged by analysts to trade for a back. With Sunday's game, they seem to have shortened this list of potential targets, if there is even a need for such a list.

The Bears defense held Alvin Kamara to 28 yards rushing on 11 attempts and 1 yard on three receptions. They also had a sack courtesy of his missed block.

They made Kamara look like the 30-year-old running back he is.

Yet, for some reason Kamara has been one of the two names bandied about by analysts and on social media. The Bears are not in need of 30-something backs averaging career lows of 3.6 yards per carry and 4.9 yards per catch. 

Two weeks ago Ben Johnson was asked about the need to trade for a back and expressed no desire to do it.

"Our guys are going to be fine," Johnson said at the time. "It's not always the runners. It's everybody. It's the quarterback carrying out his fake, it's the receivers blocking down the field, it's the tight ends doing their job and the same thing with the offensive line.

"I think there's a lot of times on that tape we're not giving our runners a chance. I think we're going to be fine there."

In games since then, Johnson proved exactly right.

They have the running game going and both D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai have shown they can get the job done with sufficient blocking. They looked a bit like Johnson's old combo back duo of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. Even Roschon Johnson made two effective runs in short yardage when finally given a chance.

They had 40 rushing attempts Sunday, although that might have been more than they normally plan to run.

"In some weeks we’ll run it that volume, other weeks we might not feature the run game quite as much," Johnson said. "That kind of fluctuates a little bit. We feel really good about both of those players.

"And so it’s not like I call the game any different when one guy’s in over the other. They both were pretty hot yesterday."

Don't scratch the backs idea completely off the docket yet, though.

There is the possibility Breece Hall gets traded by the Jets. At 0-7, the Jets would seem like a team desperate for draft picks. If the price was right, Hall is a worthwhile acquisition.

Hall has never averaged below 4.2 yards a carry and is at 4.6 for his career despite missing most of his rookie season with a torn ACL. Then again, he just became an injury concern on Sunday.

Then again, after Saturday's college football games, just keeping their picks to position themselves and draft either one of Notre Dame's running backs looks like an ever better choice for the future because the Swift and Monangai combo seems now to be clicking.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.