5 hopes for the Chicago Bears roster going forward at this point of the season

The Chicago Bears are now ten games into the 2023 season. The team is sitting at 3-7, but they are playing some of their best football as of late. While the playoffs are a long shot, there are plenty of things to be hopeful about over the back end of the schedule. What can fans root for?

5. The Chicago Bears hope to see more from their pass rush to close the season 

The Chicago Bears pass rush has been abysmal this year. They currently rank 31st in pressure generated and 32nd in sacks. That includes the three-sack game they just completed on Thursday. This pass rush has a lot of work to do.

Luckily for them, the Bears did some work on it. They added Montez Sweat, which is a game-changing weapon. Sweat already has ten pressures per PFF, and his pressure rate is about on par with what he did with the Commanders. 

Sweat came onto the team cold and faced Ryan Ramcyzk, one of the better tackles in the NFL. Then, on a short turnaround, he saw Taylor Moton, who is well above average as well. Now, Sweat gets some time to adjust to the defense, and he gets easier right tackle matchups. This could go well. 

Sweat has allowed the Bears to move DeMarcus Walker around more. He can upgrade Yannick Ngakoue on run-downs and upgrade Andrew Billings on passing-downs. 

Gervon Dexter and Zacch Pickens do not get much benefit of the doubt right now, but if either can take a bit of a step in the back half of their rookie season, this defensive line may be cooking toward the end. Can they at least get the 16.5% pressure rate up to 20%? That is the hope right now.