The Chicago Bears arrive at Halas Hall soon to kick off Training Camp, with rookies reporting on Saturday, July 25, and veterans following on Tuesday, July 28. As is tradition, we’re going to spend the week taking stock of the roster and setting the scene for the annual unofficial start to the season.
Continuity is tough in the modern pro sports landscape, but the running back room at Halas Hall is one of the exceptions to the rule, with head coach Ben Johnson bringing back his top three running backs in D’Andre Swift, Kyle Monangai, and Roschon Johnson for another season.
The Starter: D’Andre Swift
2025 Stats: 16 G, 223 Carries, 1,087 Rushing Yards, 9 Rushing Touchdowns; 34 Receptions, 299 Receiving Yards, 1 Receiving Touchdown
ESPN’s 2026 Projections: 17 G, 219 Carries, 994 Rushing Yards, 8 Rushing Touchdowns, 30 Receptions, 269 Receiving Yards, 1 Receiving Touchdown
How does D’Andre Swift follow up a season in which he posted career-bests in rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns? Pick up where he left off, according to his head coach.
“He’s a dynamic player,” Johnson said, via the team’s official website. “I’ve known that about him since he came into the league, firsthand 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. He’s a vital part of what we do here.”
It sounds like Johnson feels like there’s more untapped production in Swift to come, and he’ll have (at least) one more season to unearth it before the veteran running back’s contract expires at the end of the league year next spring. Swift himself said this offseason that he felt like he had more, and he might have even left some on the field last season.
“I still feel like I left some out there,” Swift said. “That’s me being critical of myself looking back over everything. For the most part, I think I did a good job of doing what I was asked to do.”
D’Andre Swift runs with the ball against Lions linebacker Jack Campbell at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesThe Swift-Johnson reunion always made sense on paper, and we saw those beliefs come to fruition last season, even with then-rookie Kyle Monangai eating into his workload down the stretch. For me, the balance between Swift and Monangai will be intriguing this season. I would love to see Swift have another career year, selfishly, for the betterment of the team. But if he does, there’s a pretty good chance he prices himself out of Chicago, which would mean Monangai would be next in line to assume the lead back duties in Johnson’s offense.
If that’s going to be the case, last year’s backfield split should be the floor as far as Monangai’s workload. That line of thinking isn’t a secret. It’s even evident in preseason projections, like ESPN’s Mike Clay’s, where he has Swift getting 219 carries to Monangai’s 192, and he even has Monangai picking up 825 yards and six rushing scores.
Time will tell. Either way, we should feel pretty good about this duo heading into 2026.
Who’s New?
Salvon Ahmed and Coleman Bennett are the only new faces (who will be in pads) to watch in Chicago’s backfield this summer. Ahmed has 38 NFL games under his belt, all with the Miami Dolphins from 2020-23, during which he totaled 593 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 163 carries. Bennett signed with Chicago as an undrafted free agent out of Kennesaw State.
As for those not in pads, Chicago has a new running backs coach after Eric Bienemy departed in the offseason to return to the Kansas City Chiefs, Eric Studesville.
New Bears RBs Coach Eric Studesville. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn ImagesStudesville was hired to replace Bienemy after spending the past eight years in Miami, most recently serving as the Dolphins’ associate head coach and running backs coach. In addition to almost a decade in Miami, Studesville brings nearly three decades of NFL coaching experience to Halas Hall, including his start with the Chicago Bears as an offensive quality control coach from 1997-2000. As you probably put together, his time in Miami has some overlap with Ben Johnson’s time there.
“I think I’m just myself,” Studesville said during the offseason. “I go in there. I have a philosophy of how I like to do things, of how I see things. I have to obviously tailor that to Ben and Press [Taylor], and what this offense requires, and what they want me to do, and that is first and foremost in that, and we talk through those things, and then the things that are the foundations and fundamentals of this offense, we’re going to continue to do those things, and we’re going to build on all the little things.”
Who’s Back?
Kyle Monangai, Roschon Johnson, and Brittain Brown are all back for the Bears this season. Obviously, Monangai is the headliner here following a breakout season of his own that included 738 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 169 carries during the regular season. Monangai’s 164 receiving yards on 18 catches last season gave him 947 scrimmage yards, which trailed only his backfield mate Swift.
Not bad for a seventh-round pick out of Rutgers, right? Like Swift, Monangai isn’t content and knows there’s plenty more left in the tank for him as he enters year two of his NFL career.
“There are a lot of things I can improve on for sure,” Monangai said following his rookie season. “I was just coming into this thing just trying to gain the trust of the organization, gain the trust of my teammates, make them feel like they made the right decision in bringing me here, and then trying to help us win games at the end of the day. We fell short at the end of the season, but personally, looking at it, like I said, I did some good things, and there are definitely some things I can build off of.”
Kyle Monangai (25) stiff arms Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Dax Hill (23) in the second quarter of the NFL football game between Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals © Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesThe nice thing about continuity is that you’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’ve got in returning players. There’s not a lot of need to opine on the Swift-Monangai tandem until proven otherwise.
The same can’t be said for Roschon Johnson, who returns for his fourth season in Chicago after the Bears selected him in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft out of Texas. Johnson posted a promising 352 yards and 81 carries (4.3) and a pair of touchdowns during his rookie season in 2023. Since then, outside of some goal-line usage — that resulted in six touchdowns in 2024 — there hasn’t been much of a role for the former Longhorn in Chicago.
He played 14 games and rushed for 150 yards on 55 carries in 2024 (2.7), but received just two carries in seven games last season in year one of Ben Johnson’s offense. With Swift and Monangai firmly entrenched as the one-two punch in Johnson’s backfield, there’s not much reason to believe he’s going to see his role increase in a meaningful way. More likely than not, he’s going to play out the final year of his rookie deal and depart in the offseason.
Similarly, Brittain Brown is back, but figures to be a non-factor barring injury at the top of the depth chart. Brown played three games for the Bears last season and rushed for 37 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
One Bears Player to Watch
As I laid it out above, a strong encore for D’Andre Swift is good for everyone, for this season anyway. If Swift has another career year, it’ll likely spell out good things for Chicago’s offense as a whole. It will also likely close the book on his time in Chicago. My one ‘it’s July, and I’ve been pretty bored with not enough actual on-field things to think about for six months’ thought is: should the Bears explore trading Swift before the NFL trade deadline if he has a strong start to the season?
I’m not advocating it or forecasting it with conviction. I see plenty of value in backfield continuity and doing everything possible to win this season, and, unarguably, that would include Swift for 17-plus games. But the thought did creep into my mind, and I felt like saying it out loud.
As the old saying goes, the juice would have to be worth the squeeze, and even then, I’m still not convinced it’s the best immediate path for Chicago. I will say this, however: credit to Swift, GM Ryan Poles, and Head Coach Ben Johnson. I hated the signing when it happened, and his first season in Chicago made it look like sunk cost. But Swift was always adamant he would bounce back, and his head coach and front office trusted in that belief, and he did just that.
Swift is currently the 19th-highest-paid running back in the league, and if he posts another season like last, his $24 million deal will look like some of the best money spent on the running back market in the last half-decade.
Hence then, the article about 2026 chicago bears training camp preview d andre swift and the running backs was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 2026 Chicago Bears Training Camp Preview: D’Andre Swift and the Running Backs )
Also on site :
- Commonwealth Games 2026 schedule, start times and how to watch
- Tech F1i: Aston Martin details extensive AMR26 upgrade package
- Olympic champion Hannah Mills underlines Portsmouth advantage in pursuit of home SailGP win