Commanders, Ron Rivera bid farewell to Montez Sweat
Commanders, Ron Rivera bid farewell to Montez Sweat originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Just before the NFL trade deadline, the Commanders traded their star edge rusher, Montez Sweat, to the Bears for a 2024 second-round pick.
On Wednesday, the Commanders said goodbye to Sweat.
“We really appreciate everything Montez did for us,” head coach Rob Rivera said to the media on Wednesday. “A heck of a football player. … We made the decision … and want to wish him the best in Chicago.”
Sweat, 27, played five seasons and 67 games (started all of them) for the Commanders between 2019-23.
While in D.C., Sweat racked up 35.5 sacks and 197 combined tackles. He forced nine fumbles and defended 11 passes while recording one interception return for a touchdown.
Now, he joins the league’s worst pass rush with the Bears. Last season, they ranked last in the NFL in sacks, recording a paltry 20 sacks. This season, they’re sporting the bottom of the leaderboard again with 10 sacks.
Sweat’s 6.5 sacks this season equate the Bears’ defensive line’s total sacks for the season. The Bears are hoping he can provide a spark to an underachieving defensive front.
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Immediately after the Bears traded for pass rusher Montez Sweat, the question of his future arose.
The Bears gave up a second-round pick to get Sweat, so with that kind of compensation, they have no choice but to extend his contract. The team, which is 2-6, didn’t trade for a half-season rental, and Sweat is in the final year of his rookie contract.
The Bears could use a franchise or transition tag on Sweat before free agency, but they would prefer to sign him to a long-term extension sooner than later.
“You start to lose opportunities [by waiting until after the season],” General Manager Ryan Poles said Wednesday, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “It’s really hard to see. . . . If you look at the free agent stack now, it’s going to look very different by the time you get to that point of the year, because there are so many different opportunities that can pop up in terms of extensions, tags, different things like that. So we decided with that type of player we wanted to capitalize on that now.
“I feel really confident that we can get a deal done.”
Sweat, though, will have to agree to do it now, and he said Tuesday he wants to do his due diligence first.
“I just want to consider everything around me before I make a decision,” Sweat said.
Sweat, a first-round pick of Washington in 2019, has 35.5 sacks in 67 games over five seasons. He has 6.5 sacks in eight games this season, which is only 3.5 fewer sacks than the Bears have as a team.
