When Bears players stopped stretching Tuesday and headed off to work with their position groups, D’Andre Swift stood alone. He was the only healthy running back.
“I just knew not to look around for help,” he said with a smile.
On Wednesday, Swift got one more co-worker — practice-squadder Brittain Brown practiced alongside him. Everyone else — rookie Kyle Monangai, Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer, who is on injured reserve — remains hurt.
The Bears went into the offseason looking to find running-back help. Had the Patriots not drafted Ohio State star TreVeyon Henderson with the 38th overall pick, the Bears, at No. 39, would have.
Now Swift is the only one standing.
The Bears eventually drafted Rutgers star Monangai, who has emerged as their second-stringer, in the seventh round. The message was clear: The starting job still would belong to Swift. So would most of the work. He figures to get a higher percentage of the workload than almost any running back in the NFL, a far cry from coach Ben Johnson’s two-headed-monster approach in Detroit.
In his only live action of the summer Friday in Kansas City, Swift ran seven times for 28 yards and caught one pass for six yards. It was the way he did it — after failing to hit the hole regularly last season while searching for longer runs, Swift’s steps were direct.
“There wasn’t as much dancing with negative rushes, which is going to be big for us,” general manager Ryan Poles said. “To stay on par with the chains and stay with positive gains there.”
He also hurdled a defender.
“When we’re a little bit stale coming out of the gate, he wants to be that guy to get us back on track,” Johnson said. “I think that’s what the good running backs do in this league. . . . I thought the cool thing you saw in that game was a couple of short-yardage opportunities, and he was one to lower his shoulders and find a way to get the yard.”
Swift and his bosses praise the work of running backs coach Eric Bieniemy, the loudest and perhaps most hard-charging assistant on the Bears’ staff. Swift said he “didn’t really change much about myself” as much as he focused on the details.
“Just being really intentional about everything,” he said. “I approach every single day with the ‘prove it’ mentality.”
Johnson was an assistant coach with the Lions when they traded Swift to the Eagles in April 2023, only days after they drafted Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round.
Swift parlayed a career-high 1,049 rushing yards with the Eagles into a three-year, $24 million contract with the Bears. He was their second choice — Saquon Barkley came close to picking the Bears in free agency but instead chose to replace Swift in Philadelphia. Barkley had 2,447 rushing yards between the regular season and postseason, an NFL record, and won the Super Bowl.
Though he set a career record for yards from scrimmage, Swift was underwhelming in his first year with the Bears, averaging a career-low 3.8 yards per carry. The Bears will lean on Swift’s pass-catching skills — Johnson’s running backs totaled 945 receiving yards last season.
“He can drop his pads and go get a yard when he needs to,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “We love what he does in the passing game.”
Whether any Bears running back gets a chance to do anything else — DJ Moore could be in the backfield on gadget plays — depends on how Swift fares. It might be his last chance with the Bears, who can cut him after this season and pay only $1.3 million in dead-salary-cap charges.
“We’re all excited to be able to watch him go,” quarterback Caleb Williams said.
