When DeAndre Swift turned Caleb Williams' flipped toss into a 42-yard gain against Buffalo last week, maybe the least surprised person in the stadium was running backs coach Chad Morton.
"There's nothing he can do that surprises me," Morton said of Swift.
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In fact, Morton had just seen Swift do something similar in practice the previous week. It was even more spectacular then because he one-handed it and took the pass upfield.
"Just think of all the different ways we can use him now," Morton said. "We already know he can run the ball. But just, it opens up all the screen games. We can put him as a receiver, have him run option routes out there, jet sweeps or even a decoy.
"There's so many things that are available for him. All the empty (backfield) stuff that we do for him, he's just going to be so valuable. Not just as a runner but for the entire offense and all the stuff he can do."
The Bears signed Swift for $24 million over three years not just because he could run the ball but because he was a versatile threat.
"I like to do it all," Swift said. "I can do it all.”
Imagining how this might work for the Bears wasn't exactly easy based on their 2023 offense and their 2023 quarterback.
They had three passes to running backs that went beyond 19 yards on the year. Their opponents in games had more than that by Week 5 last season, and wound up with 10 against a good group of Bears linebackers in coverage.
The Bears offense hadn't been versatile enough under Luke Getsy, and with Justin Fields at quarterback.
Without a real backfield receiving threat beyond Roschon Johnson last year, it lacked breakaway speed. But even when they had an above-average pass catcher in David Montgomery the previous year, Fields didn't get him the ball enough in a manner that let him beat teams in the open field.
Their breakaway speed in that passing attack came on quarterback scrambles, and there are limits involved with those. QBs can get hit and injured if they don't slide or if they are sacked.
The goal for the quarterback is to get it out of his hands and to someone else. He's the playmaker, and the Bears saw this from Williams on against the Bills as he found a way to will the ball into Swift's hands.
In Swift, they have a back who can be the player who picks up the slack lost by their lack of scramble yards. A short dump-off and he can gain 10 or 12 yards if needed. Where the Bears had only 14 catches by all backs combined go 10 yards or longer last year, Swift by himself has done it 44 times in four seasons.
The Eagles didn't use him as much this way last year as Detroit had, and it resulted in fewer targets. His 39 catches were a career low. His 49 targets were 19 lower than his career average.
Apparently Philadelphia made a mistake here. At least the long catch and run Saturday says as much.
"He's got great hand-eye coordination," Morton said. "He's really smart. He knows how to read man/zone, he's just very detailed. He knows where to be at the right time, knows spacing very well."
Bears coaches have seen a back who fits into the offense and knows how to run patterns rather than simply flare out of the backfield as a safety valve.
"A lot of guys, they cant read zone very well and get too close to the defender," Morton said. "He just understands spacing. He's just a smart kid. He works his butt off too. He's just all business."
Morton calls it both an acquired trait that has been sharpened with Swift.
"So some guys, even with their experience they still don't know how to do it, but he's just got that feel and he's just really smart too." Morton said.
Tight end Cole Kmet sees it all coming together from various aspects largely because of those backs.
"With our run game — I don’t want to sleep on our run game, either," Kmet said. "I think our run game’s gonna be really good with the backs that we have, the offensive line we have and obviously the tight ends that we’ve got. I think we do a lot of damage at that and it really opens things up in the pass game as well."
Guard Teven Jenkins thinks Swift and the other backs can do something else with the ball besides catching passes. Swift didn't have a reputation for being physical in Philadelphia or Detroit but the Bears guard thinks he has seen this quality in Swift.
"I would say all of our runners ... very physical," Jenkins said. "They do a lot of quick jump-cuts. They're getting a lot better about pressing balls, they're getting better about sticking their foot in the ground as well. Like, they're just right on top of double teams, which helps us get on top of those backers, which helps us with our angles."
Averaging 5.04 yards per rush on 45 attempts in two games say they have definitely not dropped too far off last year's rushing game, when they were second in the league.
"They have improved and stepped up their game," Jenkins said.
In more ways than one.
