Chicago Bears 25 Most important players of 2024: #5 Montez Sweat

Our countdown of the 25 most important Chicago Bears players is down to the final five. At five is defensive tackle Montez Sweat.

The Chicago Bears are less than a week away from having the rookies report to training camp. Our countdown of the 25 most important players of 2024 is in its final five. At the five spot, we have defensive tackle Montez Sweat. Sweat was acquired last season in a midseason trade with the Washington Commanders.

From the moment he arrived, he was the best defensive lineman on the roster. He hopes to be the best one throughout the entire season in 2024. He transformed the Chicago Bears pass rush, elevating the play of his teammates. He led the team in sacks despite only being there half the season.

In fact, Sweat was the first player to lead two teams in sacks in the same season. Moreover, He had 12.5 sacks last season. All the other Chicago Bears players combined for 9 sacks.

This season Montez Sweat will be critical for the Chicago Bears pass rush. He has the strength, length, power, quickness, and moves to blow up any offensive lineman that goes his way. He is an elite pass rusher and a headache for opposing offenses. Having him on the team for a full season should help the pass rush tremendously.

There is one problem with how good Sweat is, however. He is so good that opponents have to pay attention to him. When they do that, it opens up space on the other side. However, the Chicago Bears have not been able to put someone there who could make opponents pay.

We saw what happened with the poor play opposite Sweat. The Green Bay Packers sent everyone they could at Sweat to slow his path to the backfield. Without someone on the other side, Packers quarterback Jordan Love was able to carve up one of the best secondaries in the NFL. Sweat was a non-factor in the game.

Poles and the Chicago Bears have 98 million reasons to protect Sweat. That was how much money they signed him for the next four seasons. In the same way Poles needs to protect quarterback Caleb Williams as the main cog of the offense, he needs to protect Sweat for the defense.

It has been talked about ad nauseam that the Chicago Bears need a pass rusher to complement Sweat. Some thought Poles would draft a defensive end instead of Rome Odunze in the first round. Others thought he would bring in a veteran. He did neither. He drafted Austin Booker in the fifth round. While Booker can eventually be a big steal, he is, for now, a project with just 580 college snaps to his name.

There is still a chance that Poles picks up a veteran, though. There are still a few good edge rushers available as free agents. The thought is that as training camp nears, many will find teams. Many feel that one of them will end up with the Chicago Bears.

For his part, Sweat is acting like the leader of the defense. He feels the defense can pick up where it left off last season.

It’s great. We’re trying to pick up where we left off from last year. We lost two guys, two great guys up front, Justin [Jones] and Yannick Ngakoue, but we got some young guys that are really stepping up and an experienced guy like Jake Martin that’s really making some noise out there. So, I am pretty excited on what I’m seeing.

After a miserable first four weeks in which they gave up more than 30 points per game, the defense tightened up and allowed just under 18 points per game in the final 13 games.

Additionally, the defense ranked fifth in total turnovers forced. In terms of interceptions, they ranked first. This is a tough, athletic defense that wants to rank in the top ten at least, top-five preferably. Sweat wants the defense to be elite. He will do his part by trying to wreak havoc in the opponent’s backfield.

Previous rankings: #25: Tory Taylor  #24: Velus Jones  #23: Jack Sanborn  #22: Gerald Everett  #21: Kyler Gordon  #20: Cairo Santos #19: Kevin Byard  #18: Nate Davis  #17: Jaquan Brisker  #16: Austin Booker  #15:Tyrique Stevenson  #14: Darnell Wright  #13: Khalil Herbert  #12: Tremaine Edmunds  #11: ColeKmet  #10: Gervon Dexter  #9: Rome Odunze  #8: Braxton Jones #7: D’Andre Swift  #6: Keenan Allen.

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