LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Bears haven’t won three consecutive games against the Packers since they swept the regular-season series in 2005 and opened the 2006 season with a shut-out win at Lambeau Field.

They’ll have a chance to match that win streak on Sunday.

Here’s everything you need to know from the podium to the injury report before kickoff in Week 5.

1. Running back Kyle Monangai won’t play vs. the Packers, dealing a significant blow to the Bears’ bread and butter.

Monangai ranks seventh in the NFL in rushing yards with 324 on 60 carries through four weeks. D’Andre Swift ranks eighth with 311 on 69 attempts.

It’s football’s most potent 1-2 punch out of the backfield.

But the Bears won’t have it at full strength against one of the league’s worst run defenses.

Monangai exited last Sunday’s win against the Jets with a thumb injury. Then he appeared on the injury report on Wednesday with a toe injury and did not practice all week. He was officially ruled out on Friday.

“We were certainly conscious of the thumb,” coach Ben Johnson said Friday, “and turns out the toe is a bigger deal than we initially anticipated, so he’ll be out here this week. He won’t be participating in this game and we’ll see how long that injury sidelines him. We got him with a specialist and so we’ll work through that. He’s in a boot currently and we’ll go from there.”

Monangai is considered week to week.

It’s a big loss against a Packers defense that has allowed 557 yards on the ground through four games – fifth worst in the NFL.

But that also means there should be plenty of opportunities for others in the backfield to step up on Sunday.

2. Like D’Andre Swift, who isn’t in the doghouse but does have to earn some of the coaching staff’s trust back.

Ben Johnson called Swift’s fumble in the third quarter of last Sunday’s win against the Jets “egregious.”

Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood made a nice play to wrap himself around Swift’s waist behind the line of scrimmage but it didn’t take much force for the ball to pop out of Swift’s grasp.

“It’s one that we can’t have,” Johnson said Wednesday. “There’s too many times when the ball’s getting away from our body and he knows that. He takes a lot of pride in it — hence why it’s never been an issue over the course of his career. We just gotta tighten that up and he’ll be just fine moving forward.”

He did not see the field for the rest of the game and finished with 15 carries – half of Kyle Monangai’s 30. 

But his punishment for being loose with the ball won’t carry over into Week 5. The Bears need Swift to be himself – which began with getting it corrected during the week and moving past it.

“Our points of pressure and the fundamentals and techniques that we believe in in carrying the football apply across the board,” offensive coordinator Press Taylor said Thursday. “We feel like if you pulled out every single time we fumbled so far this year, we could find some sin committed in terms of what we believe is the most critical elements of carrying the football. 

“So we bring those to light. We emphasize them with the guys. We get them corrected. We establish drills that week that are correcting the mistakes we had but also trying to prevent against what we see from this defense and the way they go after the football.”

3. Roschon Johnson has a chance to showcase his skill set, too – which he hasn’t been able to do yet under Ben Johnson.

Kyle Monangai did not miss a single game in 2025. D’Andre Swift only missed one – Week 9 against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Monangai ran the ball 26 times for 176 yards in the 47-42 win last season. His backup was running back Brittain Brown, who finished with five carries for 37 yards and a touchdown.

Johnson missed the game with a back injury.

Talk about bad timing.

Between back and thumb injuries, he only appeared in seven games last season, taking a majority of his reps on special teams.

To call Sunday a big opportunity for the fourth-year back might be an understatement.

“He was one of those guys that we just hadn’t seen a lot of because of the injury history,” Ben Johnson said. “And yet, since he’s been healthy, he runs hard. I think that showed up again last week when he got the ball in his hands, put his foot in the ground and got north and south right away. 

“Bigger body than the other guys in that room, and so I think he’s a complete back. He can run hard in between the tackles. I think he’s got enough speed to get to the perimeter. He catches the ball well out of the backfield and then because of his size, I think he’s an asset in pass protection as well. So he can do a little bit of everything, which we really value at that spot.”

4. It’s “highly likely” the Bears will activate at least one player from the PUP before Sunday to fill out the 53-man roster.

The team opened the 21-day practice window to return for linebacker Noah Sewell (Achilles) and defensive end Shemar Turner (knee) on Sept. 23. They have until Oct. 14 to make it back onto the active roster before they’re shut down for the season.

Nickel back Kyler Gordon, however, has been a full participant in each practice since his 21-day window opened on Oct. 1.

“I think he’s working hard,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said Thursday. “I think he’s competing out there on the practice field and that’s good to see. I’m excited about all these guys that are coming off the PUP list and what I think they can help and what I think they can bring to the table.”

Does that mean it could be Gordon, whose number is called this weekend?

“We’ll see,” Ben Johnson said Friday.

Update: The Bears have activated linebacker Noah Sewell. Gordon (calf) and Turner (knee) are OUT for Sunday vs. the Packers.

5. Quarterback Caleb Williams returned to practice in a limited capacity and is officially QUESTIONABLE for Sunday.

“Tyson (Bagent) will be the guy,” Ben Johnson told broadcaster Jeff Joniak on Monday. “We’ll go forward from there. We’re in good shape.”

If you want to play the semantics game, Johnson never said “Sunday” or “starter.”

Still, Williams is not expected to play Sunday, with Friday being his first practice since suffering a Grade-2 hamstring strain in Week 2.

It is, however, a great sign that Williams is progressing in his recovery and Friday’s practice is another step in the right direction.

“We’ve got him progressively increasing the amount of running that’s going on,” Johnson said, “and of course the throwing aspect of it is a big part of his position as well. Our guys have a good plan in place, and we’re just going step-by-step with that right now. Every couple of days we’re getting this throwing protocol in and making sure there are no setbacks. So far, so good.”

6. In the wake of Bears legend Mike Ditka’s death, Ben Johnson envisions a “cool opportunity” for his team to write a new chapter in rivalry with the Packers.

“Obviously, as far as I’m concerned,” Johnson said, “Coach Ditka is the gold standard in terms of this place. He’s a legend around here, as a player, as a coach. His impact is still being felt to this day and as the head coach of the Bears, I feel humbled to be in that same chair that he was once in.”

The Bears don’t need extra motivation when going against the Packers. But it doesn’t hurt.

When Johnson spoke to the media on Friday, he hadn’t spoken yet to his team about Ditka’s impact on the franchise. He’ll make sure to do so before Sunday.

“We certainly started off the week just talking about the history of our team and the Packers as well and just how far back that goes,” he said. “And so, it’s a cool opportunity for our guys to write another chapter in this long story that’s gone on between these two organizations. But yeah, we’ll certainly – whether that’s (Friday) afternoon or (Saturday) morning – we’ll talk about Coach Ditka as a team.”

7. Left guard Joe Thuney’s pectoral injury is just a product of normal wear and tear – and he’s not alone.

“I think probably 75 percent of the guys that have played in all four games, they’re dealing with something right now,” Johnson said. “So no one feels great. It’s that time of year already. We made it through the first quarter, and certainly offensively, that last game we had a lot of snaps. … I know that they are all mentally where they need to be to play well in this game.”

Offensive linemen Jonah Jackson (ankle) and Darnell Wright (ankle) joined Thuney on the injury report during the week. All three were full participants in Friday’s practice and do not carry injury designations into Sunday’s game.

Thuney popping up on the report – aside from his weekly veteran rest days – is rare. He hasn’t missed a regular-season start since 2022.

“That availability’s huge and that goes for every player on the roster,” Johnson said. “He certainly has been able to maximize that window and he certainly knows his body. I think he just does a great job with the recovery aspect.”

8. For all the Packers’ issues and injuries, safeties Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams are still playing at a high level and pose the greatest threat to the Bears’ offense.

Both McKinney and Williams already have an interception this season, along with rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse.

They’re ball-hawkers – which could cause havoc for backup quarterback Tyson Bagent, who was critical of his own Week 4 performance for being too “loose” with the ball.

“They do a great job of keeping the ball in front,” offensive coordinator Press Taylor said. “I think the two safeties and the nickel (Javon Bullard) do as good of a job as anybody we’ve seen at least in terms of disguising coverage, rotating coverage, being versatile. You’ll see all those guys play in the box, play deep in the post, play the half. It’s a really good unit from that standpoint. Those three really play together really well and complement each other really well.”

9. There’s a lot left to be desired from the Bears on kick returns and it’s the next big point of emphasis for special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.

Hightower’s unit ranks last in the NFL in average yards per kick return with 21.3. To make matters worse, the Bears were set back by penalties on two of their four kick returns in Week 4.

“I got to do a better job in that phase,” Hightower said Thursday. “But so we’re working towards that, doing that in practice. Also working to improve the scheme and also improving the technique. So those two things we’re honing in on in practice, and the guys want to get it. They want to be better. They don’t want the penalties that we had last week. The penalties have hurt us in that phase. Anytime you have penalties in a return phase, it’s going to hurt you because you’re giving everything back you got. So we just got to be better there.”

Rookie receiver and return specialist Zavion Thomas, who’s averaged 21.3 yards on eight returns, is still adjusting to the NFL, too.

“I think Zavion is doing a good job,” Hightower said. “Zavion is going to be fine. More reps he gets, more full-speed reps he gets, the better he’ll get. I think that he is realizing that lanes close up a lot faster in the league than they close up in college, and really, truth of the matter is, we got to coach it better, we got to block better.”

10. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Green Bay Packers or the Shippensburg Red Raiders, rivalries matter a lot – even to quarterback Tyson Bagent.

“To say this is just like any game just wouldn’t be true,” Bagent said Wednesday. “This is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports. It’s easy for the fans to get up for, easy for us to get up for so it will certainly be a different feel out there.”

Bagent has a history of dominating rivalries too.

At Shepherd University, Bagent went 3-0 against rival Shippensburg Red Raiders. In three starts, he went 77-of-117 passing for 935 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions.

But Bagent doesn’t need added fuel to get up for the big games. The opportunity to play is enough.

“I’ve always treated each game the same,” Bagent said. “Life or death, hair on fire, just trying to execute to the best of my ability. Hopefully, everybody else feels the same.”