LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Bears have been committed to the run game to this point. However, they have not been efficient, especially with their primary rushers.

Feature back D’Andre Swift is averaging 3.5 yards per carry, even with some explosive runs. Secondary option Kyle Monangai is at 3.4.

Those two will take the lion’s share of the runs, but the Bears need those averages to go up.

Overall, the Bears need better sync.

“It can be better all over the place right now,” Johnson said in a Wednesday press conference. “We’re very conscious of it.”

That’s why head coach Ben Johnson added a meeting to the Monday schedule. This one focused solely on the run game but didn’t solely include backs and offensive linemen.

He invited every offensive player and several offensive coaches.

The group watched every run from Sunday’s 31-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. Several chimed in to offer unique perspectives.

Johnson explained each rep’s effectiveness and painted a three-dimensional picture of what needs to happen on every run.

“It can take a little bit of time before this all meshes and all jells together,” Johnson said. “We’ve got some new faces up front that haven’t played a ton of ball together yet. That’s part of the process. It’s also for the runners to understand what we intend to do with some of these play calls, where we want that ball to hit. And then, at the end of the day, they take their natural skill set and they make something big out of it.”

Players came away from the meeting feeling confident, believing that rushing efficiency isn’t far off.

“The good news is that it’s not something big,” right guard Jonah Jackson said. “It was little details, things that we can fix.”

Simply calling the meeting meant something and showed a commitment to getting it right before Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

“I feel like what we did on Monday is a great step for us as an offense,” Swift said. “Talking through everything together, and us being all in the same room, so everybody can hear different coaching points from different coaches in different positions (was big).”

The ground game is Johnson’s schematic bedrock. When that gets right, the system can really be explosive.

“Our whole goal as a coaching staff is to get (the running backs) up to the third level as much as we can, to make these safeties and these corners tackle them one-on-one,” Johnson said. “We haven’t been doing that enough, so as a coaching staff, we need a sound plan, and then we need to go out there and we need to execute it just a little bit better than what we have been doing. I’m not discouraged at all. I see how close we are from this whole thing coming together. That was really the point of the meeting there on Monday, was those guys seeing the same thing.”

DJ Moore still finding way as RB

Johnson didn’t try to hide the fact he was using receiver DJ Moore as a running back this season. He spoke plainly about it during training camp, as a way to get Moore, well, more involved in the offense overall.

Moore has taken 11 snaps from the backfield through three games, including eight in Week 3. He has six carries for 15 yards to this point – he, like other Bears rushers, wants that efficiency higher — though he has been an impactful receiver out of the backfield.

While he rarely leaves the field, that’s not new. He played 94% of last season’s offensive snaps and is under that right now.

Overall, he’s enjoying the varied usage, which helps put more threats into the pattern.

“I’m cool with it,” Moore said after Wednesday’s practice. “I mean, it gets everybody on the field and keeps the defense off balance.” 

Participation report

There wasn’t movement on injuries to major Bears players, with linebacker T.J. Edwards and slot cornerback Kyler Gordon remaining out of practice with hamstring injuries. Tight end Colston Loveland, who left the Week 3 win with a hip injury, also wasn’t around for practice.

While that doesn’t suggest those three are closer to a return, Wednesday’s practice was also the week’s longest and conducted in pads. Getting ramped up with two days of practice is certainly possible, but maybe not for Gordon. He hasn’t practiced since the preseason.

Grady Jarrett didn’t practice, but he has been skipping Wednesdays since dealing with a knee injury. Right tackle Darnell Wright (elbow) didn’t participate, but Johnson didn’t view his ailment as something major.

Here’s the full Wednesday participation report:

Scenes from Halas Hall

The Bears conducted Wednesday’s practice in pads over a longer stretch, as it was last week. Here’s a snapshot from this session: