Kyle Monangai might not be the rookie RB people were expecting in Chicago but he's absolutely the kind of player the team was searching for
The Chicago Bears took a controversial approach with the way they handled the running back position in a loaded 2025 NFL Draft class.Many anticipated the Bears were going to be aggressive pursuing one of the top backs in the class such as Ashton Jeanty, Omarion Hampton, TreVeyon Henderson, Kaleb Johnson, you name it.Everything telegraphed by […]
The Chicago Bears took a controversial approach with the way they handled the running back position in a loaded 2025 NFL Draft class.
Many anticipated the Bears were going to be aggressive pursuing one of the top backs in the class such as Ashton Jeanty, Omarion Hampton, TreVeyon Henderson, Kaleb Johnson, you name it.
Everything telegraphed by the team from comments by head coach Ben Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles, to the extensive list of 30-visit invites, signaled the Bears were interested in landing a complementary back to D'Andre Swift.
"We're gonna take a look at, again, what's available to us," Poles explained at the Combine. "I really believe it lines up where the additions that we're going have over these next two kind of player acquisition periods, of free agency and the draft, we'll be in a position to have a strong run game. Stay balanced, which in turn helps a quarterback out."
No outside additions were made to the room in free agency, which opened the door up to draft a back at some point during in the 2025 Draft Class.
Ideally, the Bears were searching for a strong, physical back giving the team a different style of rusher compared to the shifty and explosive one they had in Swift. And multiple prospects fit into that style of play.
Over the weekend, the board never quite worked out in the team's favor to land one of the top backs but an addition was eventually made in the seventh-round when the team selected Kyle Monangai as the 233rd overall pick, the 22nd running back drafted.
Why Kyle Monangai is a perfect fit in Chicago
Even though things didn't work out in terms of landing one of the top guys, it absolutely worked out in adding Monangai to the running back room. The former Rutgers workhorse plays with a physical nature and is used to handling a strong workload. Over the last two seasons, Monangai logged nearly 500 rush attempts totaling 2,541 yards, 21 touchdowns and ZERO fumbles.
"We believe he can come in and compete," Poles said after the draft. "We like his contact balance and again just the physical nature of how he plays football and his pass protection is really good as well."
That final part is the key thing for what Monangai brings to this team. The Bears desperately wanted to find a back who could help protect quarterback Caleb Williams in the backfield while also being a bruiser with the ball in his hands on the ground. And pass protection is something Monangai majored in while at Rutgers.
"Quarterback is the most important person on the field from an offensive perspective, so protecting the quarterback comes first," Monangai said after being drafted. "You gotta protect the quarterback and protect the ball is the philosophy I was raised in. So, every chance I get to protect my quarterback, to make the proper block, it doesn't always have to be a knockout, but I always have a level of intensity that I think is unmatched that I bring."
Those kind of traits and that mindset will fit perfectly into Ben Johnson's system and Monangai going to be a guy that Bears' running backs coach Eric Bieniemy will love working with. And interestingly enough, Bieniemy crossed paths going up against Monangai while serving as the head coach at UCLA.
Facing the Bruins in 2024, Monangai rushed for 109 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries with his new position coach watching helplessly on the opposite sideline.
"We spoke briefly [after that game] and he said that he appreciated my game and [on Saturday] we just caught up on how funny the world works and now I get to play for him. I'm excited."
Is it funny how it works? Or is it all intentional seeing how the board was falling? The Bears were eyeballing this guy throughout the pre-draft visit and continued to have conversations with him in the weeks following his informal meeting at the Combine.
Specifically speaking of Bieniemy, Ben Johnson shared at the Combine that his new assistant was "passionate" about a few players in the draft and the team saw value in players all the way in the Day 3 range. Monangai might have been one of those guys.
The team knew who this guy was coming into the draft and his play style fits similarly to what Bieniemy had in Kansas City with Kareem Hunt. Let's not forget EB was also the offensive coordinator for the Chiefs when they selected a previous seventh-rounder out of Rutgers named Isiah Pacheco.
Be it fate or be it intentional, the Bears found the ideal back they were hoping to draft in this class at an incredible value who makes the room much more rounded in 2025.
Ryan Poles explains how the draft board might have fallen out of the team’s favor specifically at the RB position during the 2025 NFL Draft
We’ll see if the conservative approach was worth it.
