The Bears pulled in a strong all-around defensive end who fits their 4-3 scheme well in the trade for Montez Sweat.
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00:00 All of the other ramifications aside, like Jalen Johnson's contract situation and also
00:15 Justin Fields, the Bears trade for Montez Sweat makes so much sense.
00:21 There's going to be a lot of Bears fans who see that Ryan Poles has traded away a second
00:25 round pick.
00:26 They're going to remember Chase Claypool last year and wonder what he's doing again, trading
00:30 away the future.
00:31 Well, Sweat is only 27.
00:34 He's obviously not too old to be playing pass rusher in the NFL.
00:39 And he's not Chase Claypool.
00:40 He's an effective player.
00:42 There was a lot of pre-trade emphasis on this idea they would be trading for Chase Young,
00:48 but Sweat makes more sense than that, mainly because he's never had a bad knee injury the
00:53 way that Chase Young has.
00:55 But the other reason is the Bears saw up close how effective Sweat can be when they played
00:59 the Commanders the last two seasons.
01:01 He had two and a half sacks of Justin Fields.
01:04 He also had six quarterback hits.
01:06 You know, when Sweat came out of college, he had a 4.41 second 40 time.
01:13 He's running a 40 time faster than Tariq Cohen ran.
01:17 Sweat is a guy whose skills Matt Eberfloos could love because he doesn't give away run
01:21 defense for pass rush.
01:22 He's graded third among all defensive ends by pro football focus against the run this
01:27 season and he's always been stout against the run.
01:31 He's also been a consistent pass rusher and this could mean the Bears no longer are resorting
01:36 to blitzing.
01:37 And you know, Matt Eberfloos hates to do this, but he's had to do it.
01:42 They need to pay Sweat and it'll be pricey.
01:43 Smoltrac.com projects him at about $16.6 million a year, but it could be worse.
01:50 So the Bears should be excited about bringing Sweat into the fold.
01:53 Whether he's the piece that gets their pass rush working finally, well, we'll have to
01:56 wait to see over these last nine ball games.
01:59 (upbeat music)