Building Ben Johnson's offense to specs means Kyle Monangai success

They know pretty much what D'Andre Swift has been and what he has shown he can be. He has limitations in this area of breaking tackles but has done it on occasion in his past. They need this quality out of him again to whatever extent he can manage.

The same is true with Roschon Johnson. Despite a reputation as a tough inside runner, the numbers say he has only run this way on a limited number of attempts and those occurred in short yardage situations and at the goal line. He didn't add a lot of broken tackles or explosiveness outside of this.

In Monangai, they have a back who showed in college he can break tackles and pick up yards afterward. Whether he's big enough and fast enough to get it done now at this level is guesswork for Bears coaches. It might only be a matter of health for him now, after in injury in training camp.

"I know he got dinged up late with some soft tissue, but he should be fine," GM Ryan Poles said.

The Lions model

When Johnson was in Detroit, he had two backs who could break tackles, and Jahmyr Gibbs showed he could also gain big chunks of yards after contact even though he was their speed back.

Last year Gibbs had 70 first downs, 21 broken tackles and 2.4 yards after contact per carry. The previous year Gibbs had 2.5 yards after contact per carry.

David Montgomery ran for 2.3 yards after contact in 2023 and 2024. Together last year, they ran for 120 first downs and broke 40 tackles.

However, before Ben Johnson had them, he had Swift and Jamaal Williams in 2022. They didn't get the yards after contact he got from Montgomery and Gibbs. They had just 1.7 yards after contact apiece in 2022 and a combined 34 broken tackles.

Bears power outage

Swift averaged 1.8 yards after contact and Roschon Johnson 1.3 last year. In 2023 Johnson was at 1.5 after contact but Swift was with the Eagles behind a better offensive line. He still averaged only 1.8 yards after contact there.

It didn't matter where Swift was, he failed to average a good number of yards after contact. They need that element, the tackle breaker.

Swift has broken tackles at times, though. He did it in Philadelphia behind a good line with 21 broken tackles. He needed his second-highest attempts total to do it, but still got it done.

GM Ryan Poles thinks he sees Swift again ready to roll in a similar manner.

"You could just go back to the last preseason game, I know that he didn't play in the second one, but I thought he was very decisive with getting downhill, getting positive gains," Poles said. "There wasn't as much dancing with negative rushes, which is going to be big for us to stay on par with the chains and stay with positive gains there."

Another path

The Lions had the benefit of an outstanding offensive line, although not necessarily in 2022 when Johnson took over the offense. By 2023 they were dominant. The line helped the tackle breakers. Defenders weren't in position to make tackles or were blocked out of the play entirely.

In 2022, Swift averaged a very healthy 3.4 yards before contact in the role Gibbs later had. Gibbs then averaged 3.3 and 2.7 yards before contact running behind that line.

If the Bears line can duplicate the type of blocking Swift got in Detroit before contact in 2022, they can get him out in the open for bigger yards.

If they block that way and Monangai is running through tackles the way he showed he can in preseason and training camp, the Bears running attack can establish required toughness.

"His vision, his feel, the physicality that runs with the ball, contact balance, it should help us big time," Monangai said. "Then, you get two different styles back there that you have to prepare for, which will be good."

The end result would be a dangerous running game, a threat to make the play-action pass work and a more balanced and explosive attack.

Ben Johnson already did this in Detroit one way with a different offensive line. If this one can be effective in its own way, and Monangai, especially, displays a power style, the Bears offense can set Caleb Williams up with the kind of offensive balance to keep defenses on their heels.

Then production like Johnson had in Detroit for three years with an attack ranked each season in the top five could be duplicated.