Chicago Bears RB D’Andre Swift enters his age-25 season after a career year with the Philadelphia Eagles (1,263 scrimmage yards) and joins an offense that is poised to trend up after an overhaul.
Everyone seems to want exposure to this offense, and yet, Swift’s draft day price isn’t too prohibitive. Could he be a fantasy football league winner?
D’Andre Swift’s 2024 Fantasy Outlook
- Total Fantasy Points: 244 (183 non-PPR)
- Rushing Yards: 875
- Rushing TDs: 6
- Receptions: 61
- Receiving Yards: 437
- Receiving TDs: 2
These are PFN’s consensus projections, correct as of August 16. The most up-to-date projections can be found in our Who Should I Draft Tool.
Should You Draft Swift This Year?
Swift emerged as “the guy” in Philadelphia last season after hardly being used in Week 1 and did something we had yet to see in his profile: sustain volume throughout an entire season.
The Bears didn’t give D’Andre Swift a 3 year deal with $15M guaranteed to not make him the featured back. Swift is coming off the best year of his career and has a better chance of getting more receiving and goal line work in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/HFe2qJF68G
— Kyle Lindemann (@LuckIsMadeFF)
Swift’s per-touch efficiency has never been a concern (5.3 yards per touch for his career), and his ability to hold up for an entire season was very encouraging.
This offseason, he inked a three-year, $24 million deal with the upstart Bears, a good landing spot in terms of overall environment. For those of us chasing value, this worked out nicely.
Roschon Johnson and Khalil Herbert still reside in the Windy City, RB depth that forces us to take into account some role risk. I don’t believe either is a big threat to completely usurp Swift, but Johnson’s ability to be an asset in the passing game and Herbert’s 4.9 career yards-per-carry average won’t be pushed to the side.
The drafting of Swift is largely a roster construction situation. Aaron Jones and Zamir White are running backs that come off the board in this range, both of whom come without much competition. I do, however, prefer Swift to both of them.
When I’m drafting in the seventh-round range, I want to bet on offensive upside. I don’t think there’s a question about which of those three running backs most checks that box.
MORE: Fantasy Team Names | Fantasy League Names
That’s not to say that Swift is a foolproof option; he’s not. He ranked 25th of 35 qualified running backs last season in fantasy production compared to expectation (-7%).
And as promising as Chicago’s roster is, its best case still isn’t as high as what Swift was a part of in Philadelphia last season. A failure to reach expectations could result in a frustrating season.
We have Swift projected for roughly 10-15% growth over what he did last season, something that I believe is very much obtainable but is certainly on the optimistic side of things.
The reason I land on Swift in drafts is less about him and more about where he positions himself in the ranks. The tier after him in the ADP hierarchy are committee backs that are a long shot to reach 200 touches, and I often find myself wanting to lock in my RB2 before we get to that point.
