Kyle Monangai

More episodes

• Week 3Sep 30, 2026

  Kyle Monangai — Week 3: Ten Carries, Six on One Drive

  Monangai carried 10 times for 31 yards and three first downs, six of the carries for 26 yards on the 13-play drive, begun late in the third quarter, that Case Keenum finished from the 1, including a 6-yard conversion on third and 1 from the Philadelphia 25. His three first-half carries went for minus 1, and he was not targeted for the first time this season, in a 27–7 win over the Eagles.

• Week 2Sep 21, 2026

  Kyle Monangai — Week 2: Two Yards on Fourth and One

  Monangai carried 10 times for 47 yards and three first downs, 42 of the yards after halftime, and caught both targets for 11. He converted fourth and one from the Minnesota eight with 8:30 left, and ran 15, 4 and 12 on consecutive snaps of the third-quarter drive that ended in D'Andre Swift's fumble at the one, in a 9–3 loss to the Vikings.

• Week 1Sep 14, 2026

  Kyle Monangai — Week 1: Sixty-One on One Carry, Thirty-Nine on Nine

  Monangai ran up the middle for a sixty-one-yard touchdown with fifty seconds left in the third quarter, one snap after Carolina turned it over on downs at the Chicago thirty-nine, and finished with ten carries for a hundred yards. The other nine carries went for thirty-nine, three of the ten were successful, and he caught both of his targets for twenty-four, in a 59–37 win over the Panthers.

• Camp · Aug 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

  Kyle Monangai Camp Update — August 31: Absent From Every Reserve List

  The reserve designations the Bears' cut-day reporting listed Sunday — the physically-unable-to-perform list, four players to injured reserve — did not include Monangai, and one post-cuts depth chart lists him as the number-two back. But no beat report placed him at practice all week. The roster kept his path open; the knee still holds the calendar.

• Camp · Aug 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

  Kyle Monangai Camp Update — August 23: Week-to-Week, With August Running Out

  The testing on Monangai's knee came back with a coach's timeline: week-to-week, per Ben Johnson. He missed the entire Cincinnati week while Roschon Johnson and Salvon Ahmed absorbed his work, with the season opener about three and a half weeks out.

• Camp · Aug 16, 2026Aug 17, 2026

  Kyle Monangai Camp Update — August 16: A Knee Scare With the Tests Still Out

  Kyle Monangai left Sunday's practice after tangling with Grady Jarrett, an apparent right knee injury with testing still to come. Early signs say he dodged it, but this is the second time camp has interrupted him.

• 2026 PreviewJun 15, 2026

  Kyle Monangai 2026 Season Preview — a rookie complement, fairly priced

  Monangai finished RB29 across all 17 games, averaging 8.1 half-PPR points per game as a rookie change-of-pace behind D'Andre Swift in Chicago. That production came from a complementary role rather than a featured workload, so how much of it returns depends almost entirely on whether his opportunity share grows — the efficiency that filled the gaps between carries is the part least likely to repeat.

  ▾

  Show notes & transcript

  Kyle Monangai carved out a real rookie role in Chicago's backfield — and the market has him priced exactly as what he is: the change-of-pace back behind D'Andre Swift. No edge here, just a useful piece. The Muffed 2026 preview.

  The 2025 season was a solid rookie complement's line: a hundred 69 carries for 783 yards and five touchdowns, +18 catches — eight-one a game, RB36 per game, though the volume pushed him to RB29 in total. The signature was a 26-carry, a hundred 76-yard grind against Cincinnati in Week 9, when he got a true lead-back workload. He flashed real ability when given the rock.

  The arc is one rookie year, so there's nothing to project — and we don't bank year-two leaps for running backs anyway. What we can see is a complementary role with occasional spot-starter upside on a good offense.

  What the data says: nothing fires. His touchdown rate is moderate, his volume is committee-level, and his price matches his finish. He's a handcuff with standalone flashes, valued like one.

  The situation, per the reports, is the cap and the upside, both a notch clearer than in the spring: D'Andre Swift is the confirmed lead back — but Chicago drafted no running back at all, adding only camp depth, which is a quiet endorsement of Monangai as the number two. The year-two buzz is real (the breakout listicles found him this June), and the sneaky context is Swift's contract: he's in the final year of his deal, which makes Monangai the implied succession plan, not just the handcuff. In this offense, the contingency role has standalone value the moment anything happens to the starter.

  The price: pick 90, the 30-third back. Verdict: NO CALL — a complementary second-year back on a good offense, priced right where that role sits. The counter both ways: he's a high-value handcuff with a live path to more — no drafted competition, an expiring starter ahead of him — but he's capped as long as Swift's healthy. Fair price, no edge.

  September watch: the carry split with Swift — does the year-two share grow; plus Swift's health, which is Monangai's whole ceiling. If he's one of your guys, Muffed builds this show for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.

• 2025 ReviewMay 11, 2026

  Kyle Monangai 2025 Season in Review

  ▾

  Show notes & transcript

  Kyle Monangai finished 2025 as the number 29 running back in total PPR scoring and the number 37 running back in PPR per game. That gap tells you everything about his rookie year in Chicago — 17 games of volume cracked the top 30, but per game he was a backend flex at best. This was a true committee behind D'Andre Swift, who carried the load with 223 totes for 1,087 yards and nine scores. Monangai was the change-up and short-yardage finisher on one of the league's most efficient rushing offenses — the Bears finished third at 4.8 yards per carry — and when Swift's workload dipped or game script opened up, Monangai flashed legitimate juice. The problem for fantasy managers? Knowing when those weeks were coming.

  Now let's get into the numbers. Monangai handled 169 carries for 783 yards and five rushing touchdowns at 4.6 a pop, adding 18 catches on 30 targets for 164 yards on a thin 6 percent average target share. The efficiency was real but not elite — plus 47.5 rushing yards over expected, which works out to plus 0.29 per attempt and ranked 30th among qualified runners. Translation: slightly better than the blocking gave him, but not breaking the model open the way Swift was at plus 0.6 per carry. The bigger fantasy story is the variance. He averaged 8.6 PPR per game, but that average hides a brutal split — single digits in 11 of 17 games, including five under 4 PPR, before erupting for 22.8, 19.0, and 17.4 in his three best outings. Textbook boom-or-bust. The booms required either a Swift-light workload or a blowout script that handed him 20-plus touches. When he got 22 carries against the Eagles or 26 against the Bengals, he smashed. When he got six or seven, he got muffed.

  The single play that captures the year came in Cincinnati in Week 9, a 47-42 shootout where Monangai got a true workhorse share for the only time on the road. Fourth quarter, Bears up 34-27, first and 10 from midfield — he bounced it outside right for 39 yards down to the Cincinnati 17, worth plus 2.5 expected points and the kind of explosive that capped a 26-carry, 176-yard masterpiece. That game alone produced 22.8 PPR and accounted for roughly one-sixth of his entire season's fantasy output. The 2025 portrait is simple: the talent showed up in flashes on a top-five rushing offense, but the role was a complement, not a feature, and the weekly scoring reflected exactly that.