Caleb Williams was the Bears’ leading rusher in a Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. That’s both a good and bad thing. 

The quarterback being productive with his legs is a plus. The fact that no running back outgained him is certainly not. D’Andre Swift was inefficient despite having runs of seven, nine and 13 yards. 

DJ Moore was the only other player to receive a handoff, without much to show for it. 

That’ll need to change in a Week 2 contest against the Detroit Lions, but will the Bears be able to increase production against a top 5 run defense in 2024?

Scott Bair (that’s me!!) and Nicholas Moreano discuss what it will take to get the run game on track in this week’s Bears debate: 

Nick: Running the football doesn’t get much easier this week, Scott. The Lions finished as the fifth-best rushing team last season and held the Green Bay Packers to just 78 total rushing yards last week. 

Linebacker Jack Campbell led the team with 10 total tackles and finished with the highest run defensive grade (87.6). He is someone that must be accounted for at all times, and the same can be said about edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson. 

If the Bears want to get the running game going, D’Andre Swift will have to play a big part in making that happen. The Bears’ running back carried the ball 17 times for 53 yards, averaging 3.1 yards per carry. That absolutely must improve for the offense to stay on track and, more importantly, avoid obvious passing situations on third down. 

Scott: Swift needs more than a little help from his friends. Roschon Johnson was unavailable in Week 1, still recovering from a foot injury that kept him out for weeks. If he’s able to go against Detroit, Johnson will provide a more physical element – the dude’s 6-feet and 227 pounds – running between the tackles.

Swift generally struggled with those runs, a key to Ben Johnson’s offense. Roschon Johnson played almost exclusively in short-yardage situations last year in a different system, but should get more carries on early downs to keep the Bears on schedule. His playing status remains uncertain, so we don’t know if he’ll contribute against Detroit.

Rookie Kyle Monangai will be ready to go. The seventh-round NFL draft pick played against the Vikings but didn’t have a carry. He executed nine total snaps, though he had one reception and struggled some in pass protection. Blocking well is vital for running backs and their access to the field, so he’ll have to tighten up in that area to see his opportunities increase.

Nick: Let’s see what head coach Ben Johnson’s rushing offense looks like with the entire backfield at his disposal. It will also help the running backs to get better blocking from the interior offensive linemen. 

Center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson didn’t have the best starts of their respective Bears’ careers. According to Pro Football Focus, Jackson finished with the lowest offensive grade for the Bears (31.0). There were also several snaps where the two had miscommunication, which allowed Vikings defensive linemen to stuff gaps and minimize runs. 

The Bears must clean up their own mistakes to see improvement on Sunday against Detroit. 

Scott: There’s another element at play here, Nick, and that’s the play caller himself. Ben Johnson said this week that he needed to call more runs overall, especially after a week where he couldn’t feel a rhythm in the run game as he was calling it. The backs must reward him with efficient gains to keep those calls coming.

Ben Johnson’s looking for relative balance offensively. He called 20 designed runs – Williams scrambled productively on six other occasions – against 35 passes. If the run game’s more effective, expect that carry count to soar. That’ll depend on everything Nick and I have talked about here. If all these rushing elements get going, the Bears have a real chance to earn Ben Johnson’s first win as Chicago head coach.

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