Chicago Bears top edge rusher Montez Sweat took a bit of a step back last season, but the pieces could be in place for the veteran edge rusher to bounce back in a big way in 2025.
Sweat finished the 2024 campaign with 5.5 sacks, his lowest output since the 2021 campaign when he was a focal point of Washington’s pass rush. According to Pro Football Focus, Sweat was just the No. 31st-ranked edge rusher across the league.
“Sweat’s first full season in Chicago wasn’t quite on par with his tenure in Washington,” Ryan Smith writes for PFF. “He earned a 65.6 PFF grade in 2024 after grading no lower than 74.8 from 2020 to 2023 — but he still led the Bears with 49 total pressures. It marked the fourth time in six seasons he’s reached that threshold. Since entering the league in 2019, Sweat has consistently performed at a high level against the run.”
As Sweat looks to return to form as a disruptive force off the edge, who boasts 47 sacks through the first six seasons of his career, the Bears may have added the kind of talent around the 28-year-old to help push him up the rankings and free him up to wreak havoc in opposing backfields this season.
Why Grady Jarrett could spark Montez Sweat turnaround for Chicago Bears
It is wholly obvious that general manager Ryan Poles and the Bears set out to bolster the pass rush this offseason, adding defensive tackle Grady Jarrett–who logged four sacks and 34 quarterback pressures along the interior and Dayo Odeyingbo, who arrives after a four-sack and 42-pressure campaign.
However, there might be another metric that led the Bears to sign Jarrett in the early hours of free agency, to a three-year deal worth $42.7 million, that could potentially unlock Sweat’s potential.
According to Pro Football Focus, Jarrett drew double teams on 36.7 percent of snaps through the first five weeks of last season, which would rank second along the Bears’ defensive line to Gervon Dexter.
The combination of Odeyingbo’s presence off the opposite edge, and adding a second disruptive interior pass rusher could hold the key to Sweat being more productive, given his 37 hurries were the second most of his career.
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