The Chicago Bears are sitting at 2-6, but here they are buying at the trade deadline. The team added pass rusher Montez Sweat from the Washington Commanders in exchange for their second-round pick. The move can be justified in so many ways but questioned in just as many. Let's go through the debate.
Smart Reason 3. Montez Sweat is an instant upgrade for the Chicago Bears
Nobody is denying that the Chicago Bears upgraded their defensive line with this move. Montez Sweat has 6.5 sacks this season, and the rest of the Bears edge rushers have five. He has one fewer tackle for loss and two fewer quarterback hits than the entire room.
He has 27 pressures per PFF, which would lead the entire Bears roster. Yannick Ngakoue has 22. His pass rush productivity score is 7.7, while the DeMarcus Walker leads the Bears at 5.2. Lastly, his pass rush win rate is 10.6%, which beats Walker at 9% and Ngakoue who is at 5.3%. Nobody on the line is close to as good as him.
The Chicago Bears saw that firsthand when he battled Darnell Wright all game in week five. Sweat usually goes against right tackles, and Ngakoue has lined up on left tackles, so you would assume Walker is seeing his role shrink. However, he is also going back to his old role of sliding inside more, which he has hardly done this season.
The Bears can line up Sweat, Walker, Gervon Dexter, and Ngakoue in pass-down looks, and it will be the best group they have had all year. This is why they made the trade.
Foolish Reason 3: Are the Chicago Bears in the right position to be buying at the trade deadline?
The Chicago Bears did it again. In a time when the team should be selling and looking to rebuild, they are buying. You cannot go halfway in on a rebuild because then you lose the pieces needed to complete everything. The Bears are not going to be contenders this year.
The Addition of Montez Sweat may have taken them from four wins and a top-five pick to six wins and outside the top ten. It still does not add them to the playoff picture. Their safeties are banged up, and they do not have a starting quarterback right now.
We saw last year that the team tried to go halfway on the rebuild. They sold Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn but used assets to add Chase Claypool. That turned into the 32nd overall pick and Joey Porter Jr. a rookie cornerback who looks good.
It was easy to say the Bears needed something at the time, but in the long term, they needed that pick. Do they need Sweat to finish this year off, or do they need as many draft assets as possible? Why do they buy when this roster and the running for the top pick in two straight years say to sell?
Smart Reason 2: The Chicago Bears can build a future around Montez Sweat
Montez Sweat helps the short term, which is arguable whether that matters. However, he also helps the long term. Montez Sweat is only 27 years old. That is a little older than you would want for someone coming off of their rookie contract, but it shows that he has good years ahead of him, and the Chicago Bears are there for that.
So, while the team is losing some long-term hope with a younger player, they get a player who is proven but also a player who is young enough to have a future. The Bears have two first-round picks still, and their defense has shown moments when they have gotten healthy. If Teven Jenkins and Nate Davis can stay healthy and they hit on their high picks, this is a roster that could turn it around quickly. So, they could have a rookie taken with a top-40 pick who is up and down and showing flashes, or they can have prime Montez Sweat. The Chicago Bears went with the latter.
Foolish Reason 2: The Chicago Bears will have to over pay Montez Sweat
The Chicago Bears do not think that they will get into the Chase Claypool situation again, and the odds are that will not happen. Sweat has a longer history of sustained production at this point in his career. Still, the Chicago Bears did put themselves in a bad spot at the negotiating table, very similarly to what they did with Claypool.
What if Sweat comes to Chicago and does not play well? Is he adjusting to the new scheme, just a few bad games? What if he is up and down? He is a free agent at the end of the season. Essentially, the only way the Chicago Bears keep him is to franchise tag him or overpay him. The franchise tag guarantees he stays. If he plays well, it is an obvious move but also an ugly one, and it still does not ensure he stays. So, the Bears have to franchise him, which is a slight overpay for his skill set. Then, that becomes the floor of his extension because the Bears agreed to pay it.
If he plays poorly, they still probably have to franchise tag him, or they lose him. They put themselves in a spot where they have to extend him no matter what he does in the next couple of weeks. Talk about giving the player all of the leverage.
Smart Reason1: There were not going to be better options in free agency
The reality is that players like Montez Sweat do not end up being free agents. We saw this last year. The Chicago Bears had some big choices between Zach Allen, DreMont Jones, Mike McGlinchey, and Tremaine Edmunds. These were the best fits for them at the highest price tags in free agency.
Allen has been on one of the worst defenses in the NFL and did little to nothing when he played the Bears. McGlinchey has been worse with Denver than he was with San Francisco. Jones has been fine, but the Seahawks just added Leonard Williams to improve that unit. Then, there is Edmunds, who the Bears chose. He has been a bust so far.
The Chicago Bears can wait until all of the good players get extended and Franchise-tagged and then pick through the scraps for guys like we mentioned above. Or, they could add someone who was not going to make it to free agency. Someone was going to trade for Sweat; the question was the price. Did the Bears overpay? Possibly. Was there any way that they could get this impact in the spring? Unlikely.
Foolish Reason 1: Was Montez Sweat the best option the Chicago Bears could add?
This goes back to the reality that the Bears will have to franchise tag Montez Sweat and then pay him like an elite pass rusher. That is fine because they have the money, but is he an elite pass rusher, or are they just accepting that they overpaid in draft cost and eventually contract?
His pass rush win rate is the best among the Chicago Bears, but he ranks 38th in the NFL, per PFF. Chase Young is at 18.4%, while Sweat is at 10.6%. He is 22nd in pressure as well. Names like Danielle Hunter and Chase Young were better options, with trade rumors floated around them. It is easier to accept paying the high price for those names.
Sweat could be argued as a top 20 edge rusher at the top of his game. The Bears are going to pay him like he is in the top 10 or top five. They are desperate and may not have been able to find better, but we have to accept that they made a move out of desperation; they overpaid, and that is not a good combination.