BREAKING NEWS: Bears Have Turned Things Around After Landing Montez Sweat

The Chicago Bears are starting to resemble a respectable football team—don’t look at them just yet. The club appears to have turned the corner after opening the season with a 0–4 record, going 5–4 in its subsequent games.

The Bears are in a unique position since they can keep playing hard and try to win a lot of games in order to secure a top choice. Chicago owns their first-round pick as a result of the trade they made with the Carolina Panthers during the previous summer. That selection is getting closer to certain to be the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft with every week that goes by.

The Bears’ rebuilding process will be accelerated by that trade, which not only landed them premium draft capital but also added wide receiver D.J. Moore, a No. 1 receiver who has been everything the team could ask for and more. General manager Ryan Poles was able to be aggressive ahead of the trade deadline again because of the extra draft capital acquired from the Panthers. Prior to this season, they had traded Chase Claypool to the Pittsburgh Steelers for an inexplicable second-round pick.

Chicago attempted to acquire defensive end Montez Sweat from the Washington Commanders through a deadline trade this season. Sweat has helped the team’s defense get back on track, so the early returns on this trade have been excellent.

The first-round pick in 2019 traveled from Washington to Chicago without missing a beat. Sweat has performed admirably in each of his five games with the Bears. In all, he has racked up 12 tackles, 2 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, 15 total pressures, 2 passes defensed, and 2 tackles for loss. With 0.5 sacks separating him from Yannick Ngakoue for the team lead, he is currently tied with Justin Jones for second place on the squad in sack total.

For a time now, the Bears’ pass rush has been weak; nevertheless, Sweat has quickly improved it. Since he was acquired, the team has been playing at a high level, which has helped them get back on track.

With Sweat in the lineup, the Bears defense has improved to be in the top five, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. Since Week 9, they have finished in the top five in takeaways (tied for second), pass defense (fifth place), and total defense (fifth place). Chicago ranked thirty-first in pass defense over the first eight weeks of the season.

Given how significantly different the performances have been, the 2023 season can be divided into two parts: before Sweat and after Sweat. Chicago allowed 27.3 points, 341 yards, and 262.3 passing yards per game from Weeks 1-8, but only having 10 sacks and 9 takeaways. They came in at positions 28, 23, 30, last, and 22, in that order.

They are surrendering 18.2 points, 272.2 yards, and 180.6 passing yards per game starting in Week 9, in addition to 11 sacks and 11 takeaways. During that time, that ranks 9th, 5th, 5th, tied for 22nd, and tied for 2nd.

For the first time since 2018, when they last made the playoffs, the Bears have recorded three or more takeaways in three straight games. The NFL leads in takeaways with 11, and that number rises to even greater heights when you consider that Chicago was on a bye in Week 12.