Kyle Monangai sat out Chicago Bears practice once again Friday, putting his availability for Monday night’s game at the Seattle Seahawks in serious doubt.
Monangai has not played since a Week 4 win over the New York Jets, and a fourth straight missed game now appears likely with no clear end to his absence in sight. Nonetheless, the Bears have not placed the 24-year-old running back on injured reserve.
He left the Week 4 game late after a career-high 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns. The thumb issue looked minor. The toe injury was a different story. Monangai saw a specialist, landed in a walking boot and has since missed games against the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots.
The toe proved “a bigger deal than we initially anticipated,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said, according to Reuters.
Chicago has listed Monangai as week-to-week since.
Kyle Monangai Turf Toe Recovery Timeline
Turf toe is a sprain of the ligaments and joint capsule at the base of the big toe, the joint a running back relies on to push off, accelerate and cut.
Recovery runs on a sliding scale. A Grade 1 stretch heals in days to two weeks, a Grade 2 partial tear takes two to eight weeks, and a Grade 3 complete tear can sideline a player for six to 12 weeks or more, sometimes requiring surgery. Those ranges are general medical guidance, not a diagnosis of Monangai.
Four weeks and three missed games fit the Grade 2 range. That timeline is typical for an injury that required a specialist and a boot, while milder sprains resolve faster and higher-graded ones linger longer.
Monangai did not practice Thursday or Friday, and a player in that spot generally needs to get on the field to have a realistic chance of playing. Monday night’s kickoff gives him one extra day of recovery. Roschon Johnson has backed up D’Andre Swift throughout Monangai’s absence.
Chicago has kept Monangai off IR, which requires a minimum four-game absence, because the team expected a shorter timeline. Johnson has called him week-to-week and “trending in the right direction,” he said, according to Sports Illustrated.
Kyle Monangai’s Career and the Chicago Bears Ground Game
Monangai was born June 6, 2002, in Roseland, New Jersey, to parents from Cameroon. He rushed for 3,222 yards at Rutgers, second in school history, including 1,279 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2024, when he earned first-team All-Big Ten honors.
Chicago selected him 233rd overall in the seventh round of the 2025 draft. He closed his rookie season with 783 yards and five touchdowns on 169 carries, then opened 2026 with 324 yards and three touchdowns on 60 carries, a 5.4-yard average.
The Bears averaged roughly 196 rushing yards per game in the four games Monangai played, near the top of the league. Without him, they averaged between 89 and 100 yards and fell below 100 in consecutive contests. Swift and Johnson have shared the load without matching the early-season production.
The Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20-3 last Sunday and held Kenneth Walker III to 36 yards on 14 carries, a season-low 2.6 per carry with no explosive runs. Walker, a former Seahawks Super Bowl MVP, entered as the NFL’s leading rusher. Seattle owns a streak without allowing a 100-yard rusher and ranks among the league’s best in yards per carry allowed, stuff rate and EPA against the run.
Monangai’s 5.4 yards per carry ranked among the league leaders before the injury. Even healthy, he faces a stiff test against Seattle.
Bears Announce Latest Kyle Monangai Injury Update Before Seahawks Game