Ben Johnson needs more urgency from the Bears’ run game and the solution has to come from within with limited outside options

From the outside looking in, the start of the Ben Johnson Era for the Chicago Bears has been a disaster, beyond the 0-2 start to the 2025 season.

Frankly nothing has gone right for this team. Johnson, one of the league's top offensive minds, is having to call the game with a hand tied behind his back. Meanwhile, what was a highly-regarded defense coming into the season led by Dennis Allen, has given up 73 points in the last five quarters of play and the scheme just isn't working as the Bears hoped without multiple top starters.

It's a brutal reality for Chicago. But, inside the building, the faith isn't wavering from the coaches. Johnson and his staff are starting to light a fire under the players and soon enough he will begin pulling weeds from the garden that are refusing to live up to the high standard being put in place.

One area in particular that's been incredibly frustrating over the first two games has been the lack of run game, not only a staple, but a necessity, in a Johnson-led offense. While the sense of urgency to improve is being pressed by the coaches, the Bears have limited options to fix the run game.

Should the lack of a run game be a bigger concern for the Bears in 2025?

The most annoying part is, this is something everyone saw coming with this team. Going into the offseason, countless backs were linked to the Bears to give Johnson his ideal one-two punch with D'Andre Swift. Even in the draft, the Bears struck out on multiple top backs and didn't address the position until the seventh-round by drafting Kyle Monangai.

No discredit to Monangai. He's come in and done everything that's been asked of him and earned the trust from not only Johnson, but other offensive coaches. Yet, that level of trust from the coaches hasn't shown up in the first two games.

Not counting QB scrambles, Swift has accounted for 69% of the Bears' carries. Just counting the running backs, he's accounted for 80.6% of the team's workload on the ground. Six of Monangai's seven carries this season came in the final drive of Week 2 with the backups in for garbage time.

The results with that share haven't been pretty and it's not Johnson's fault outside of the personnel usage. Swift ranked fourth in yards before contact per attempt and yet the success on the ground for Chicago is among the worst in the entire league.