Heading into fantasy football draft season for this year, it was easy to have some level of optimism about Chicago Bears' running back D'Andre Swift. On the flip side, it was also easy to be a little skeptical based on his history in Detroit with head coach Ben Johnson.
From Week 1 to Week 4, Swift was the RB24 in 0.5-point PPR scoring. Then, coming out of the Bears' Week 5 bye, he popped up on the injury report with a groin issue. He still topped 100 rushing yards in back-to-back games, though, and then he eventually missed a game in Week 9.
From Week 10-17, the stretch run of the fantasy season, Swift had at least 70 yards from scrimmage in seven of eight games. Kyle Monangai stepping up like he did put Swift into a more ideal role in the Bears' backfield, and the results showed it.
Even a Swift pessimist could've seen value in his low-end RB2/high-end RB3 fantasy ADP during the summer. With that closing stretch, as RB13 in 0.5-point PPR, that value potential came to fruition at the most ideal time for those who drafted him.
D'Andre Swift delivered on the fantasy optimism about him in 2025
With the fantasy season over in most leagues, Matt Okada of Yahoo! did an accounting of the best draft pick from each of the first 10 rounds of 2025 drafts.
Swift, with an overall Yahoo! ADP of 68.2 (RB25) and a finish as RB14 by points per game, was Okada's choice for the best seventh-round pick.
"Swift put up a third straight season of 1,200+ scrimmage yards — the prior two should have been a clue to his potential this year — and he scored 10 touchdowns in 15 games during the fantasy season. He also hit 20+ fantasy points in three of the last five games of the year, including 22.10 in the quarterfinals and 20.90 in the championship. Tetairoa McMillan and Courtland Sutton were both in the running here, as both had strong WR2 seasons, but Swift outscored both in points per game at an arguably shallower position, so he takes home the hardware."
As Okada noted, three of Swift's best fantasy performances of the season came from Week 13 on, finishing as the RB2 (Week 13), the RB7 (Week 15), and the RB8 (Week 17) in those weeks.
Read more: Caleb Williams proved he has plenty of playoff mettle in Bears' loss to 49ers
The "league winner" label gets thrown around too loosely sometimes. But Swift certainly helped many of his fantasy managers maximize their results this year, as ideal health and an ideal role came together when it mattered most.