Irving ran 27 times for 170 yards and a TD, finishing as the RB9. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry with a long of 46. He didn’t draw a target in a game where Tampa Bay barely threw, and he lost a fumble. Kenneth Gainwell added 25 carries for 140 yards.
2026 Fantasy Football Impact
Irving and Gainwell split snaps evenly at 30 apiece. Irving had played 64% of snaps over the first seven weeks, including 77% of early downs. He still led on early downs 26 to 18 and took the lone goal-line snap. Gainwell handled all 8 third-down snaps and 4 of 7 short-yardage snaps. The split came from the sheer volume of carries, so Irving should still play enough to be a weekly starter.
This was Irving’s second straight strong week. He ran 24 times for 106 yards and 2 TDs as the RB2 in Week 7. That followed an RB30 finish in Week 6, when he averaged just 2.4 yards per carry. He has 51 carries for 276 yards and 3 TDs over the last two games.
Chicago allows the sixth-fewest fantasy points to RBs in Week 9, but it ranked 27th in our run defense power rankings heading into Week 8 (-3.5 rush DVOA). After the bye, Detroit allows the 10th-fewest points to RBs and ranked 12th in run defense power. Irving is a high-end RB2 with RB1 upside against the Bears.
