Bears Assistant Speaks to Character of Recent Practice Squad Elevation

The Chicago Bears are looking for the right combination at running back with Kyle Monangai still out of the picture. 

Monangai has missed the last three games with a turf toe injury. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport believes that a return is on the horizon. The injury was expected to take about 3-4 weeks to heal, so he should be back soon. 

Luckily, the Bears still have D'Andre Swift. However, they need to find a suitable backup who can take the burden off him and let him rest. 

In the last game, Swift had 22 carries, his season high. Roschon Johnson was the backup but only had two carries against the New England Patriots. 

For the sake of Swift's longevity, the Bears need to find another running back until Monangai returns from injury. The Bears have now added another running back to the mix. 

The franchise announced on X that it had elevated running back Zavier Scott from the practice squad. To make room for Scott, the Bears released defensive back Nick McCloud. 

Wright was elevated to the active roster for the Week 6 game against the Atlanta Falcons. He forced a fumble on the kickoff that was recovered by the Bears. 

For special teams coordinator Richard Hightower, he couldn't stop saying great things about Scott's character. Hightower was especially impressed with his drive to make his teammates better. 

"Yeah, I mean, you would love Zavier, man, Hightower said. "He's a, first of all, unbelievable human being. He's a better person than he is football player. The kid is really driven, Christian kid, really straight-laced kid that has been in my office every day since he's got here, looking at his practice scout team reps. He comes up every day and looks at his practice scout team to see where he can get better, even when he wasn't active. Okay, so what you see happening is work in the dark that came to the light. And I couldn't be more happier for that kid because all he wanted to do was get better every day. Even if it was scout team, how can I make Daniel Hardy better? How can I make Jack Sanborn better before he got a chance to get called up? So, it's always awesome when you see somebody that puts in the work, and then they get rewarded for it. So, I couldn't be more happy for that kid. I really couldn't."  

Scott played college football at UConn from 2017-19 before transferring to Maine for the final three years of his college career. 

He was an undrafted free agent in 2023 but landed with the Indianapolis Colts. He stayed with the franchise for one season and was waived during roster cuts the following year. 

Scott then joined the Minnesota Vikings practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract with the organization in 2025. He played mostly on special teams last season and occasionally got in at running back if Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason needed rest. 

The Vikings waived Scott during final roster cuts this year, and he joined the Bears. 

Scott has now been elevated for three consecutive weeks to the Bears' active roster. Teams only got three elevations for a practice squad player, or they can be exposed to the waiver wire. 

To prevent this, the Bears have added him to the active roster. The Bears did what they had to do in order to avoid losing Scott. 

However, based on what Hightower said about his character, it looks like there's another reason that the franchise is keeping him around. 

It'll be interesting to see what kind of role Scott has in Week 8.