The Chicago Bears did what everyone knew that they had to do. They gave Montez Sweat an extension. After the draft cost they put into him, the Bears could not risk losing him to free agency, and they got a deal done within a few days. What are the initial takeaways from the Montez Sweat trade and extension?
3. The Chicago Bears paid a hefty price tag for Montez Sweat.
The Chicago Bears gave Sweat a deal for $98M over four years. The deal is worth $24.5M per year, and in total, it will have $72.5M in guaranteed money. So, while it is a four-year deal, the minimum that the Bears will be on the hook for is three seasons. You can argue both sides of the deal, but you cannot argue that the Chicago Bears paid a lot for Sweat.
First, the second-round pick will be a pretty nice return in value for Washington. They will get a player making closer to $1M per year over the next four years, while the Bears will be paying Sweat and losing the pick.
When comparing Sweat to the top pass rushers in the NFL, you can see that he may have been overpaid a bit as well. Below is a comparison to Nick Bosa, TJ Watt, Joey Bosa, Myles Garrett, and Rashan Gary, the top five highest-paid edge rushers before Sweat was extended.
Name | Average Per Year | Guaranteed | Sacks | Tackles For Loss | Pressures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nick Bosa | $34M | $122.5M | 46 | 62 | 337 |
TJ Watt | $28M | $80M | 67 | 74 | 293 |
Joey Bosa | $27M | $100M | 36 | 45 | 227 |
Myles Garrett | $25M | $100M | 62.5 | 63 | 299 |
Montez Sweat | $24.5M | $72.5M | 35.5 | 47 | 197 |
Rashan Gary | $24M | $34.6M | 27 | 28 | 215 |
You can see that Sweat does not quite measure up to the top four. Even Joey Bosa, who has been a letdown due to injuries, has a half of a sack more and more pressures despite fewer pass rush attempts. Still, Sweat is nowhere close to the Nick Bosa, TJ Watt, or Myles Garrett tier besides making similar money, especially to Garrett.
There are a few reasons to explain this, and there is a reason to understand why the Chicago Bears did what they did.
2. The Chicago Bears paid Montez Sweat the going rate
It is easy to say that the Bears overpaid Sweat when comparing him to Myles Garrett. Garrett signed his extension before the start of the 2020 season. That feels like an entire lifetime ago. The salary cap consistently goes up, and so do the salaries of the top-paid players. If and when Garrett is due for an extension, his deal will be up around $35M, which is more than Bosa's. The same can be said with Watt, or Micah Parsons and Maxx Crosby, who will get an extension soon enough.
The Sweat deal looks high because of the timing of it. When the rest of the new deals come in, Sweat will go from a top-five highest-paid edge rusher down into the 10-15 range, which is probably where most would rank him.
Sweat was getting the going rate, which is a slight tick-up from Rashan Gary. Gary is a bit younger and more productive on a per-snap basis, but Sweat is more reliable due to the lack of injuries in his past. If Sweat hit free agency, he would have signed for the same amount, if not more. The Chicago Bears could have tried to get into a bidding war and potentially lose, so they traded the pick to make it happen earlier.
The Sweat deals look high now, but lesser rushers will get similar deals in free agency, and the Chicago Bears can now focus on other positions with their high first-round picks. In the way that the perception of the Claypool trade changed over time, we can judge the trade now, but time will clarify whether it actually was an overpay or not.
1. The Chicago Bears are invested in Ryan Poles beyond this year
Ryan Poles has made his mistakes, but if anything was clear this week, it was that Ryan Poles has control of the Chicago Bears' destiny moving forward. This is massive news because the Bears will have two very high draft picks, and it has been confirmed that Poles will be the one making them.
The Chicago Bears traded a second-round pick that may end up being top-40. Last year, the Bears lost out on Joey Porter Jr., who was shadowing DeAndre Hopkins on Thursday Night Football as a rookie. The Steelers now have that type of cornerback playing for four years on a cheap contract. This is a serious investment opportunity that the Chicago Bears gave up on.
They gave Montez Sweat $72.5M in guaranteed money. That may be the most shocking news from the contract. They cannot get out of this deal if it does not go well. Essentially, ownership just gave Ryan Poles the right to dig into free agency for the 2024 season already, and they made their big splash of the offseason.
There is no way you can see Poles trade a future pick that is going to have value and then seal up salary cap space for three more years and think that his seat is the slightest bit hot.