The Chicago Bears are coming off a hard-fought 30-24 victory over the New England Patriots in the Week 7 edition of Thursday Night Football. Now, they face the team that defeated the Patriots in last season’s Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks, on Monday night.
The trip to Seattle will be the Bears’ second Monday Night Football assignment of the season already, but they may be getting a boost to their running game before they face the Seahawks — who derailed the NFL’s leading rusher, Kenneth Walker III, in Sunday’s win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
According to an early report, running back Kyle Monangai could be on his way back to playing status after missing three straight games with a turf toe diagnosis.
Monangai has a better chance of playing against Seattle Monday night, according to ESPN‘s Jeremy Fowler, than he has since coming down with the injury on Oct. 8.
Whether Fowler’s read proves accurate depends on Thursday’s first injury report, because Monangai skipped the open portion of Tuesday’s practice and Chicago promoted another running back to the active roster.
Monangai has sat out since Fowler first flagged the injury Oct. 8, when he reported a one- to two-week window and Monangai’s hope to play through it. Coach Ben Johnson later called the toe a “bigger deal” than the Bears first believed, as quoted by Fifth Quarter.
“During the open portion of practice, we did not see RB Kyle Monangai,” Chicago Tribune reporter Sean Hammond wrote, on Tuesday. The Bears also promoted Zavier Scott from the practice squad after he used his three game-day elevations, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Fowler is ESPN’s senior NFL reporter and SportsCenter insider, and he has handled Monangai news before. In August, he reported that Monangai was expected to miss multiple weeks with a hyperextended knee and Johnson called Monangai week to week. The turf toe diagnosis proved accurate, though one to two weeks has become three missed games.
| CHICAGO BEARS — 2026 SCHEDULE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WK | Date | Opponent | H/A | Time / Result | TV / W-L |
| 1 | Sun, Sep 13 | @ Carolina Panthers | Away | W 59-37 | 1-0 |
| 2 | Sun, Sep 20 | Minnesota Vikings | Home | L 9-3 | 1-1 |
| 3 | Mon, Sep 28 | Philadelphia Eagles | Home | W 27-7 | 2-1 |
| 4 | Sun, Oct 4 | New York Jets | Home | W 23-12 | 3-1 |
| 5 | Sun, Oct 11 | @ Green Bay Packers | Away | L 31-7 | 3-2 |
| 6 | Sun, Oct 18 | @ Atlanta Falcons | Away | W 31-23 | 4-2 |
| 7 | Thu, Oct 22 | New England Patriots | Home | W 30-24 | 5-2 |
| 8 | Mon, Nov 2 | @ Seattle Seahawks | Away | 8:15 p.m. | ESPN |
| 9 | Sun, Nov 8 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Home | 8:20 p.m. | NBC |
| WK 10 — BYE WEEK | |||||
| 11 | Sun, Nov 22 | New Orleans Saints | Home | 1:00 p.m. | FOX |
| 12 | Thu, Nov 26 | @ Detroit Lions | Away | 1:00 p.m. | CBS |
| 13 | Sun, Dec 6 | Jacksonville Jaguars | Home | 1:00 p.m. | FOX |
| 14 | Sun, Dec 13 | @ Miami Dolphins | Away | 1:00 p.m. | CBS |
| 15 | Sat, Dec 19 | @ Buffalo Bills | Away | 8:20 p.m. | CBS |
| 16 | Fri, Dec 25 | Green Bay Packers | Home | 1:00 p.m. | Netflix |
| 17 | Sun, Jan 3 | Detroit Lions | Home | 1:25 p.m. | FOX |
| 18 | TBD — Flex Game | @ Minnesota Vikings | Away | TBD | TBD |
| All times Eastern. Home games at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL. Bye in Week 10. Week 18 is a flex game — date and broadcast TBD. | |||||
Monangai’s Path to the Chicago Bears Backfield
Monangai, a Roseland, New Jersey, native, was selected 233rd in the seventh round of the 2025 draft after starring at Don Bosco Prep and Rutgers. He ran 669 times for 3,222 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Scarlet Knights, according to Sports Reference, which places him second in program history behind Ray Rice.
The major knock was his lack of breakaway speed, a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. He lists at 5-foot-8 and 207 pounds and, as a rookie, carried 169 times for 783 yards and five touchdowns.
The Bears have missed him on the ground. With Monangai, Chicago ran for 785 yards in four games, 196 a game at 4.9 yards a carry. Without him, the Bears gained 81 yards at Green Bay and 98 at Atlanta, 3.1 a carry. D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson combined for 43 carries and 144 yards in those games, 3.3 a carry.
ESPN’s Courtney Cronin found that Chicago averaged 6.8 yards a play with Monangai on the field and 4.7 without him. His 5.4 yards a carry ranked fourth in the NFL, and his last game before the injury was 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns against the Jets.
Monangai Return Would Test Seahawks Defense
Seattle beat Kansas City 20-3 on Sunday and held Kenneth Walker III, the former Seahawk who was MVP of their Super Bowl LX victory, to 36 yards on 14 carries, 2.6 a carry.
Walker entered the game as the NFL’s top rusher. The Seahawks had been holding opponents to 3.5 yards per carry before Sunday.
The Bears still lead the league at 160.7 rushing yards a game, according to Fifth Quarter, and hold the ball longer than any team, 36 minutes, 1 second per game.
Chicago releases its first injury report of the week Thursday, which will show whether Monangai is practicing.
Bears Get Encouraging Kyle Monangai Injury News Before Seahawks Game