Early last season, it began to genuinely look like D'Andre Swift's second season with the Chicago Bears might be his last. Over the first four games, he averaged just 3.3 yards per carry as he was taking almost all the backfield work, as he did in 2024.
Eventually, as Kyle Monangai took on more work over the course of his rookie season, Swift settled into a role that is far more ideal for him. He had 55.6 percent of the Bears' backfield touches over the final nine games last season, as he and Monangai almost equally shared the work in the kind of backfield tandem Ben Johnson dreams of.
With that, Swift ended up setting career-highs in rushing yards (1,087) and rushing touchdowns (nine), with the second-best yards per carry average of his career (4.9). Multiple advanced metrics back up how effective a runner Swift has been in the first year of his reunion with Johnson.
This season is a very big one for Swift. He is in a contract year, and he's approaching, if not at, the apex of the age/decline curve for a running back at 27 years old (28 by the time he'd hypothetically hit the free agent market next March).
By all accounts, Swift has been a standout during training camp thus far. Johnson has also expressed intent to expand his role in the passing game back to where it was earlier in his career.
Place in ranking further greases skids for D'Andre Swift to have a big 2026 season
Based on the outlet's "Impact Score" metric, which aims to encompass several numbers into one digestible mark at each position, Jacob Infante of Pro Football Network has revealed Swift as the 10th-best running back in the NFL last season.
"The first year of D’Andre Swift’s tenure with the Chicago Bears didn’t exactly go according to plan, as he had a career-low 3.8 yards per carry in 2024. In Ben Johnson’s offense, however, he had a major resurgence and finished with a top-10 PFN RB Impact Score for the first time since entering the NFL in 2020."
"Swift’s 38.6% elusive rate tied for fourth in the league last year, and his boom-bust rate was third in the NFL. Only two players had more rushing EPA than he did in 2025, and his average of 4.9 yards per carry marked the second-best average in his six-year career. His speed and agility make him a great fit for Chicago’s outside-zone run scheme, and he looked much more comfortable in this offense than he did in their previous system."
Read more: Ben Johnson won't shy away from putting bold goals out there for Bears
Monangai is not going anywhere as a factor in the Bears' backfield, and he's lined up to have a notable role from the start this year. But Swift is not clearly going to roll over for his younger backfield mate, as he stacks a strong camp onto last year's success to push the idea that he may have another level in him this season.
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