On Tuesday, there were nothing but bad signs for the Week 8 status of Chicago Bears running back Kyle Monangai, but on Wednesday, we have at least a shred of hope.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Monangai has a better chance to play this week than he has in weeks past.

"Bears running back Kyle Monangai (turf toe) has missed the past three weeks, but his chances are better of playing this week," Fowler reported.

Now, to be clear, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Monangai has a better chance to play this week now that he's three weeks removed from his injury.

However, at least Fowler's reporting doesn't have any semblance of a pessimistic outlook for Week 8, so that gives us at least a bit of hope amid the bad signs we received on Tuesday.

What's the bad signs?

The Bears were on the practice field on Tuesday and Monangai was not taking part, according to beat writers on the ground.

"During the open portion of practice, we did not see RB Kyle Monangai or CBs Malik Muhammad or Tyrique Stevenson," The Chicago Tribune's Sean Hammond reported.

We were hoping to see at least some action from Monangai to begin the week, which would have put him on track to return, but that did not happen and now he's trending in the wrong direction once again this week.

On top of that, the Bears decided to promote running back Zavier Scott to the active roster, which could be a sign that the Bears are planning for Monangai to sit out again. Scott has been the Bears' RB3 behind D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson during Monangai's absence.

We should point out Scott was out of practice squad elevations and has been a plus special teams contributor, so that might be behind why the Bears made that move.

However, when you combine that with Monangai's lack of practice participation, it lends to the idea that Scott was promoted in anticipation of Monangai sitting out yet again.

A little optimism, please

Let's go glass half-full, shall we?

The Bears said from the outset that they didn't plan to place the second-year running back on injured reserve, which was a hint they didn't think Monangai would miss more than three games because, as we know, IR stints require a four-game absence.

"It wasn't something we felt required an IR stint. It remains a week-to-week situation, but as far as I know, he's continuing to trend in the right direction," Head coach Ben Johnson said on Oct. 16.

Along with that, Monangai has an extra day to get himself right this week with the Bears' game versus the Seattle Seahawks taking place on Monday night.

Those two factors along with Fowler's reporting is about all we can offer right now when it comes to optimism surrounding Monangai's Week 8 status.

We'll just have to wait and see how things shake out when Chicago drops its injury reports starting on Thursday.