It's scary to draft this time of year. You think you've waited long enough, and then a starting running back has to be helped off the practice field a week before the start of the season. That was the case yesterday for D'Andre Swift.
Suddenly people were more interested in how long Kyle Monangai (leg) might be out, and scraping forgotten No. 3 Roschon Johnson off waiver wires. "Helped off the practice field" could be anything from a tweak to a season-ender. But yesterday evening came good news from Adam Schefter: Swift had a cramp.
Among the players I would owe an apology to if I ever met them in person, Swift seems to be high on the list. A guy we wrote off for years (because his employers seemed to) has exceeded expectations. In our defense, evaluations can often be heavily influenced by decisions made by teams that know them best. Who am I to say Swift is a good player if the team that drafted him is giving him away to a conference rival for a future late-round pick, and if that team a year later proceeds to kick him to the curb again?
In consecutive years the Lions and Eagles dumped Swift. He ended up with Chicago, who last offseason hired the Lions offensive coordinator from when Detroit moved on. What were the chances that Swift would have a good year for the Bears?
Pretty good apparently, with Swift starting all season and setting career-highs in yards, rushing yards and touchdowns. We're sold, to the point where I think we're a little higher on him this year than most. I've already drafted him in a couple of places. So I'm selfishly glad he's OK.
Swift is small (5-8, 204), so I figured at a minimum Chicago would look to use another running back in short-yardage situations a year ago. But instead Swift got plenty of them, and through some combination of his ability and blocking schemes, he was one of the most effective running backs last year in those situations. He converted 83 percent of his opportunities when a yard was needed to score or pick up a first down. That was the 2nd-highest percentage in the league, among all backs with at least 10 such attempts last year. (No. 1 on the list is currently unemployed, but who knows, he could still sign somewhere to ruin someone's fantasy value.)
| RBS WHEN A YARD WAS NEEDED, 2025 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | "Good" | Att | Pct |
| Kareem Hunt, K.C. | 35 | 41 | 85.4% |
| D'Andre Swift, Chi. | 10 | 12 | 83.3% |
| Jonathan Taylor, Ind. | 19 | 23 | 82.6% |
| Chase Brown, Cin. | 9 | 11 | 81.8% |
| RJ Harvey, Den. | 8 | 10 | 80.0% |
| Emanuel Wilson, G.B. | 8 | 10 | 80.0% |
| Breece Hall, NYJ | 8 | 10 | 80.0% |
| Rico Dowdle, Car. | 11 | 14 | 78.6% |
| Sean Tucker, T.B. | 11 | 14 | 78.6% |
| Javonte Williams, Dall. | 14 | 18 | 77.8% |
| Rachaad White, T.B. | 10 | 13 | 76.9% |
| David Montgomery, Det. | 9 | 12 | 75.0% |
| Jahmyr Gibbs, Det. | 9 | 12 | 75.0% |
| Christian McCaffrey, S.F. | 12 | 17 | 70.6% |
| Jaylen Warren, Pitt. | 11 | 16 | 68.8% |
| Kyren Williams, LAR | 15 | 22 | 68.2% |
| Tyler Allgeier, Atl. | 12 | 18 | 66.7% |
| Quinshon Judkins, Cle. | 13 | 20 | 65.0% |
| Ollie Gordon, Mia. | 9 | 14 | 64.3% |
| Zach Charbonnet, Sea. | 7 | 11 | 63.6% |
| Zonovan Knight, Ari. | 6 | 10 | 60.0% |
| Samaje Perine, Cin. | 6 | 10 | 60.0% |
| Derrick Henry, Balt. | 11 | 19 | 57.9% |
| Chris Rodriguez, Was. | 8 | 14 | 57.1% |
| Woody Marks, Hou. | 10 | 18 | 55.6% |
| Jordan Mason, Min. | 8 | 15 | 53.3% |
| Rhamondre Stevenson, N.E. | 8 | 15 | 53.3% |
| Josh Jacobs, G.B. | 11 | 21 | 52.4% |
| Bijan Robinson, Atl. | 6 | 15 | 40.0% |
| Ashton Jeanty, L.V. | 7 | 19 | 36.8% |
Effectiveness in such situations isn't all on the player. Swift and Jonathan Taylor had better blocking than say Ashton Jeanty.
But I gotta think Ben Johnson is aware of such numbers, and any assumption that Swift will be losing opportunities to another running back, say Kyle Monangai -- he was 6 of 9 last year -- would be presumptuous.
In any case. Chicago will be using multiple running backs (whenever Monangai is helathy), and both will have good games. But I have no problem admitting that Swift has been better than I thought, maybe better than his first two employers in the NFL thought. Not that they can't be forgiven for choosing guys like Jahmyr Gibbs and Saquon Barkley instead of him. But I will give some respect to the guy here.
And at least for now, seems like he dodged an injury, and can be drafted with some degree of confidence this weekend.
--Andy Richardson
