Bears sixth-round pick Luke Newman hadn't had the chance to meet seventh-rounder Kyle Monangai until rookie camp and decided to go up and greet a player he admired from afar late last season.
“Right as we were de-cleating, taking off our tape, I went up to Kyle, I hadn’t had a chance to connect with him yet, and I said, 'Kyle, you terrorized us the last time I saw you, man,' " Newman told reporters after camp ended. "Cold November evening in East Lansing and he runs for 200 yards, three touchdowns–I don't even know, that might be underselling it–getting a closer outlook at Kyle and how he operates, how he is as a player.
"Tremendous–obviously I'm not really focusing on what the backs do in (individual drills) or in their meeting room, but from what I've gotten so far from him is that he's a tremendous athlete, tremendous player and great person as well.”
Actually, it was 129 yards and not 200 Monangai laid on Sparty in that game but the Scarlet Knights ran for 208 overall in winning 41-14.
Newman's conclusion about Monangai is the same one GM Ryan Poles had mentioned after the draft.
Yet, if Monangai is so good, how did he end up in Round 7 to the Bears?
"I don't concern myself with who went before me and all those things," Monangai told reporters at Halas Hall. "The Draft is over with, it's in the rearview for me.
"It's definitely something that I'll take with me as some fuel, a chip on my shoulder, but that's kind of been my whole career, my path to getting here. The things that allowed me to excel in college, I have to figure that out at this level first, and then use those things to my advantage, and then I expect to see the same results."
He becomes the third Bears draft pick with an axe to grind against the rest of the league. First it was wide receiver Luther Burden III, who fell from first round to second, then linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II, who was labeled by critics one of the worst picks in the draft to the Bears in Round 4.
Now, Monangai going in the final round couldn't have sat well.
"I think that's all of us, as rookies, the guys that were drafted, and even the (undrafted free agents) that were signed," Monangai said. "I think that's something that we all take on our shoulder, something that we all keep in our mind as fuel, motivation.
"Something that we don't dwell on, but it's like, this is the reality of the situation and that's how it ended up. I think we all feel blessed to be here, No. 1. I know that I don't speak for everybody, but I know we're blessed to be here. I love the situation we're in. I think we can do a lot of special things here. Like I said, it's just fuel."
Monangai gained 780 yards more (3,222) at Rutgers on 106 more carries (669) with nine more touchdowns (27) than Isiah Pacheco of the Chiefs.
Despite the yardage and impressive runs, it really does appear Monangai was overlooked but this is nothing new.
"I think my football career path has been one of, like, 'He's a good player, but there's something off,' something where, 'I'm not going to put him on the pedestal that he should be on,' " Monangai said. "I was never talked about in the top guys, usually, from Pop Warner to middle school, high school, college, to now even.
"It's not a new space, not a new environment for me, it's a role that I embrace and that I take on. I think it's what, honestly, has made me the player that I am. I think it's given me the fuel, the motivation, to be the running back I am, the football player."
While it seemed obvious why Burden fell as there were plenty of unproven rumblings about practice habits and the like, and it's obvious Hyppolite was spoken about like he was because he was the first non-combine player drafted, it's not so obvious why Monangai fell so far after putting up good numbers.
"I don't even concern myself with why," he said. "I just go and prove it to myself first, and then it proves itself on game day."
