Montez Sweat appears happy in his new home. The Washington Commanders traded the fifth-year defensive end to the Chicago Bears ahead of the NFL trade on Oct. 31, and Sweat has now played in five games for his new team.
The Commanders received a second-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft in exchange for Sweat. The Bears agreed to a four-year, $98 million extension with Sweat four days after the trade.
At the time of the trade, the Bears were 2-6 and headed for another top-five pick. Since Sweat’s arrival, however, the Bears are 3-2 (5-8 on the season), and the defense looks much different.
Sweat’s play has been a major catalyst for the turnaround. In those five games, Sweat has 12 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 10 QB hits. In Sunday’s win over the Detroit Lions, Sweat had one sack and a career-high 4 QB hits. He now has 10 sacks on the season, a career-high.
After the game, Sweat had some high praise for Chicago coach Matt Eberflus while also taking a dig at his former team.
“Where I come from, it was kind of like just waiting on the season to end,” Sweat said. “But here it’s like, every week is a new challenge, and people want to play for the man beside him……..Coach ‘Flus is a great coach. He keeps us motivated. I’ve never seen a head coach run the team and call defensive plays, so that’s new for me. A lot of respect for him as a coach.”
Sweat said nothing wrong. It wasn’t an egregious shot. It was honest. And it’s another indictment on current Washington head coach Ron Rivera. Sweat was respected by his teammates and coaches with the Commanders. Rivera and the coaching staff didn’t want to deal him, but the value proved too good to pass up.
The bigger question here is, was Sweat talking about this season — or every season? If you look at how Washington has finished in recent seasons, you could make the case that Sweat was referring to multiple seasons. In watching the Commanders play this season, it’s clear they’re counting the days until the end of the current season.