After participating in Bears rookie minicamp Friday through Sunday, linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II was excited about joining his veteran teammates at offseason workouts for the first time Monday.

A fourth-round pick from Maryland, Hyppolite intends to glean everything he can from veteran linebackers T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds.

"I'm just here to learn from them," Hyppolite said. "They do it at a high level. T.J. has earned his keep. Tremaine has earned his keep. I'm looking forward to being in the building with them. I've got great vets in the room. I'm grateful for that. I just want to pick their brains, have them coach me up and we go forward from there."

Offensive lineman Luke Newman, a sixth-round selection from Michigan State, felt the same way about the first day that rookies worked with veterans. He plans to emulate what established linemen Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman, Jonah Jackson, Darnell Wright and Braxton Jones do on and off the field.

"I just want to see and learn how they handle themselves as a professional," Newman said. "Being a college student is very different. You have classes, you stick to a more routine schedule. In the NFL, it's just ball playing.

"I want to see what those guys do for their bodies, their recovery. I want to see what they do nutrition-wise, what's right for them. I want to see how much time [and] what they're studying in the film room, what exactly they're looking at and what they're keying on. And I really want to learn how they handle themselves more off the field than on. I know they have great work ethics being in the league for this long. I'm excited to see how that all goes."

Running back Kyle Monangai, a seventh-round pick from Rutgers, has heard from veteran teammates but can't wait to join them on a regular basis at Halas Hall.

"Everybody in the room in some form or in some capacity reached out, welcomed me to the team, welcomed me to the room," Monangai said. "I'm excited to get to work with these guys in this coming week. [They're] great people to learn from. They've been here, they've done it, so I'm excited."

Not by chance

Monangai led the Big Ten in rushing over the last two years with 2,541 yards. But that wasn't his only impressive accomplishment. It was no accident that he also had 669 carries in his four-year career at Rutgers without ever fumbling.

"It's something that you focus on," Monangai said. "Grip strength is one of the things that I do day-in and day-out. Hand strength. Focusing on it. Taking care of the football being in traffic, putting two hands on the football. Things like that. But yeah, zero fumbles in college is not something that just happened by chance. It's something I definitely focused and worked on."

Backfield in motion

First-year offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is amped about the running back room, with Monangai joining veterans D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson, among others.

Last season Swift compiled a career-high 1,345 yards from scrimmage (959 and 386 receiving) and had three TD runs of at least 35 yards, third most in the NFL.

"My short exposure to D'Andre Swift has been really positive," Doyle said. "He has been really attentive. He's a pro. You like what he does in the passing game and he's going to be a home-run hitter as a runner. Adding Kyle to that mix is going to be awesome, with the group that's in there with Roschon and those guys."

Bears running backs no doubt will benefit from working with fiery position coach Eric Bieniemy, who boasts 27 years of NFL experience as a player (9) and offensive assistant (18). Bieniemy won two Super Bowl rings with the Chiefs as running backs coach in 2019 and offensive coordinator in 2022.

"He's very experienced," Doyle said. "He has been to the mountaintop and knows what that looks like. He's going to have an impact on the running back room and what that looks like. He'll have an impact on our whole offensive staff. But he has a lot of experience in a number of different areas of scheme. That will be really helpful for all of us as we go on through this."