Kyle Monangai — Week 1: Sixty-One on One Carry, Thirty-Nine on Nine
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
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.
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One snap after Bryce Young's fourth-and-three throw fell incomplete at the Chicago 39, Kyle Monangai took a handoff up the middle from that same yard line and ran to the end zone. 50 seconds left in the third quarter, first and 10, Chicago up 38 to 31; 61 yards, worth +5.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and nine and a half points of win probability. It was the largest expected-points figure of any run by either team all afternoon, and it made a one-score game 45 to 31.
The rest of the line is 39 yards on nine carries. 10 carries, a hundred yards, one touchdown, two first downs, three of the 10 successful, +2.5 expected points in total — which means the other nine came out at −2.8. −1 on second and five at the Carolina eight in the first quarter; seven and then −2 on third and three at the Chicago 32 in the second, which sent the punt team out at a tie; three, two, four, three and nine in the fourth. The other first down was 14 yards behind the left guard on third and four at the Carolina 21 with eight 51 left, to the seven, on the drive Jahdae Walker finished from the one. He caught both his targets: 19 yards on first and 10 at the Carolina 41 with 14 48 left in the second, Chicago up 14 to seven, the play before Cole Kmet's touchdown; and five yards on the drive before halftime.
The split: D'Andre Swift 18 carries, Monangai 10, Caleb Williams 10. Three of Monangai's came before halftime and seven after. On the last Bears possession, after Chicago recovered the onside kick, three straight carries were his — four, three and nine — and the touchdown that finished it was Swift's from the 28.
Back in June the preview's read on Monangai was a rookie RB29 across 17 games as the change of pace behind Swift, with growth depending on opportunity share. Sunday the share had the shape the preview described — 10 carries to 18 — and the yards did not, because one of the 10 went 61. That is one carry in one game; it does not move a share. Chicago is home to the Vikings on Sunday the twentieth. Count the carries, not the yards.
_Data via nflverse._
When Kyle Monangai's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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