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Bears Could Have NFL's Most Underrated RB Duo in D'Andre Swift, Kyle Monangai

D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai quietly formed a dangerous Bears tandem in 2025, and their production could push Chicago's backfield into the NFL elite.
Gene Chamberlain|
Stopping Kyle Monangai required a good chunk of Green Bay's defense once he got going last season.
Stopping Kyle Monangai required a good chunk of Green Bay's defense once he got going last season. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- When Ben Johnson coordinated Detroit's offense the Lions became known for the Sonic and Knuckles backfield.

David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combined to tear up defenses with power and speed. The Lions came up with this one year after they started out with Jamaal Williams and D'Andre Swift as their backfield duo.

Now, it's quite possible Johnson has the best backfield duo in the league again. There would no doubt be a majority of naysayers who would look at Swift and Kyle Monangai and say neither one are among the most dangerous backs. In fact, Swift barely cracked the top 20 in rushing and Monangai didn't.

Together, they were dynamite, though. Swift and Monangai were the only backs on the same team to both go over 750 rushing yards last season.

“We don’t really talk about it too much," Swift said at OTAs. "Once people bring it too our attention, it’s something cool to sit down and look at, but when we’re in the midst of the season, we’re not really thinking about that stuff too much.

"But it’s cool to see the statistics when they do come out at the end of the season, what we were able to do. I think it can only be better.”

After all, it was only the first season of those two together. Detroit had three years of its combo, but that combination has been altered and while Isiah Pacheco has been a productive Kansas City back, he hasn't yet been teamed with Gibbs in the Detroit backfield. He also isn't the big power runner the 230-pound Montgomery is. Pacheco has only 772 yard total the last two seasons and in his career caught more than 19 passes in a season one time.  His big rushing seasons came in 2022-23 and he never hit 1,000 yards. He also missed 13 of the possible 64 games he could have played in due to injuries.

When it first started for the Bears, it was Swift and then Monangai was thought of as a relief back who could provide a few carries. Monangai's rapid development made it into the Bears' very own Sonic-Knuckles combo, although a little different in nature. Monangai is a different sort of power runner than Montgomery is — smaller, perhaps less elusive, but a real load to bring down anyway. Swift isn't as fast as Gibbs but is speedy nonetheless, and he supplies the all-purpose style the Bears need as a receiver.

Plus, they work well together.

"We always talk," Swift said. "Anything he sees or I see, we always go to each other. I asked him today (Thursday) on a little (pass) route I had, ‘Did you see that? Was there something inside of me, was there something outside of me?’

"We just talk ball.”

Is the Bears duo No. 1?

In March just prior to free agency, Sports Illustrated's Karl Rasmussen did an assessment of the league's best backfield tandems just after the trade by Detroit of Montgomery to Houston.

He had the Bears duo ranked No. 4.

However, the No. 1 duo was Seattle's Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. That duo no longer exists, of course. Walker is now in Kansas City. Charbonnet hit 730 yards last year but this was a career high. He hadn't gone over 569 yards in his first two years. They don't automatically retain top status with half the combination now playing in Kansas City.

Charbonnet is now combining with Jadarian Price, and Price wasn't even a college starter let alone a top NFL back. While he's talented, it's better to let him prove something. After all, Ashton Jeanty was a can't miss superstar pick for the Raiders last year and didn't even hit 1,000 yards. So nothing is given in the NFL.

The No. 3 duo was Atlanta's Bijan Robinson and Tyer Allgeier. Now Allgeier is in Arizona.

That leaves only one of the top three ahead of the Bears' duo. That's L.A.'s Kyren Robinson and Blake Corum.

In their head-to-head matchup with Swift and Monangai during the playoffs, Williams and Corum compiled 106 rushing yards and four catches for 30 yards. That would be less than the 112 yards rushing and four catches for 36 yards Swift and Monangai had. Its not definitive by any means, but they couldn't be called far inferior.

What also must be remembered about Monangai was he was a rookie who didn't even figure to get a lot of carries but suddenly became the perfect counter punch. He never had more than seven carries in a game until Week 9, when he tore up Cincinnati for 176 yards on 26 attempts. As it was, he only had double-figure carries seven times.

A real backfield combo

Based on what the Bears' duo produced in the second half of last season, it became the true two-headed monster or one-two punch.

Monangai had 597 yards on 127 carries with 12 catches for 103 yards and four total touchdowns, while Swift had 623 yards on 123 carries with 107 yards on 16 receptions for five total TDs. That's good balance, but Monangai's second-half surge when he got more work indicates they could be looking at a case where two backs challenge 1,000 yards.

Even Swift could produce more.

“I mean, we certainly could target him more in the passing game, but there’s probably a number of guys I could say that for as well," Johnson said. "But he’s a dynamic player. I've known that about him since he came into the league, first-hand up there in Detroit, and certainly last year I wasn’t surprised about the year he had.

"So, is he capable of more? Absolutely. He absolutely is. And he's a vital part of what we do here."

Both are, and it could be why they wind up being the No. 1 tandem in the league in 2026. Then again, there are always new challengers with every season.

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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.

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