Bears RB Kyle Monangai gaining fantasy football buzz ahead of 2025 draft season

Kyle Monangai isn't the rookie running back most Chicago Bears fans thought would be on the roster during the run-up to the 2025 NFL Draft.

Names like Ashton Jeanty and TreVeyon Henderson were both floated as possibilities for the Bears in the first and second rounds, but the NFL Draft never goes according to plan. And for general manager Ryan Poles, that meant waiting until the seventh round to add competition for incumbent starter D'Andre Swift.

Enter Monangai, whose career at Rutgers was as impressive as any running back in the 2025 draft class. Indeed, his mediocre scores at the NFL Scouting Combine pushed his draft value way down, but none of that matters now. He's on an offense with carries that are ripe for the taking, making Monangai a sleeper target in 2025 fantasy football drafts.

According to Pro Football Focus, Kyle Monangai is one of three rookies worth targeting as a draft-and-stash players in dynasty leagues.

Much was made of the Bears’ need for running back help this offseason, and they responded meekly by re-signing Travis Homer and drafting Monangai in the seventh round. Neither move was particularly world-changing on paper for Chicago’s backfield, which D’Andre Swift leads for now. But don’t let Monangai’s draft slot fool you into dynasty passivity.

Monangai has similar potential to Kansas City Chiefs RB1 Isiah Pacheco, also a seventh-round pick out of Rutgers, to take over his team’s backfield in short order. Swift is coming off a PPR RB19 season in which he was the only NFL running back to see more than 230 carries and not top 1,000 rushing yards. He averaged more than 5.0 yards per carry in only four outings and went the final seven games of the 2024 season without a 15-point fantasy performance.Ben Cooper, Pro Football Focus