D’Andre Swift injury: What status means for Week 10 vs. Giants

This week the 5-3 Chicago Bears take on a 2-7 Giants team as 4.5-point favorites at home. Starting running back D’Andre Swift missed last week with a groin injury, which helped propel rookie Kyle Monangai to a huge game against the Bengals. This week there is a chance the veteran Swift will return, but that is still up in the air, as he is listed as questionable.

Swift had been playing through his groin injury until last week when he didn’t practice at all and was ruled out against a bad Bengals defense. There is a chance the team just wanted to give him the week off to try to get his injury right while facing one of the worst defenses in the league. And that looked like a possibility this week, as Swift was limited on Wednesday and then upgraded to a full practice on Thursday. It very much looked like he would then get another full practice on Friday and be taken off the report. Unfortunately, he then missed Friday’s practice and was listed as questionable with “Groin / Non-Injury Related (Personal).”

It sure appears that he missed Friday’s practice for personal, non-injury related reasons, but the missed practice meant he would be listed as questionable. So, if he can play despite his personal issues, he would appear to be ready for a full workload.

So, we have three questions for Swift this week, will he play, if he plays is he healthy enough for a full workload, and how much work might Monangai take away from him after such a big game last week?

I’m sure we will learn more before kickoff, but I tend to believe Swift will be healthy enough to be a big part of the offense this week as long as he plays. There’s no doubt that Monangai put up big numbers, rushing for 176 yards on 26 attempts, adding three receptions for 22 more yards against the Bengals last week. But that doesn’t negate what Swift has done this year, which is a Top 12 fantasy points average for running backs.

Head coach Ben Johnson talked about leaning on the “hot hand” at running back and didn’t really sound like there was a chance Swift might miss the game. The Giants give up the most yards per rushing attempt in the league and both Swift and Monangai have the ability to put up strong fantasy games. I could see both being worthy of a start in this matchup, so don’t worry all that much when clicking that start button.