There were a lot of rumors floating around that the Chicago Bears had a deal in place to acquire Chase Young from the Washington Commanders ahead of the deadline. While those rumors were shut down, the Bears did have a deal done with the Commanders, but it was for their other young star defensive end.
Chicago acquired Montez Sweat from Washington in exchange for a 2024 second-round pick. It is the second straight year that the Bears acquired a player in exchange for a second-round pick as they sent what turned out to be the No. 32 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver Chase Claypool.
While there are plenty of people panning this deal because of how things turned out last year, the circumstances are different. An argument could be made that a rebuilding team shouldn’t be trading away draft capital, but the Bears have a second second-round pick in 2024 courtesy of the Carolina Panthers from the blockbuster for the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Also, Sweat is an established high-end player that will help the team immensely. However, the biggest issue many people have about the trade is that the Bears didn’t discuss the framework for a long-term deal with Sweat.
Playing out the fifth-year option on his rookie contract, a player such as Sweat being traded normally hinges on an extension being worked out. Trading a second-round pick for a rental when you are not a contender would be a massive blunder by the Bears.
However, general manager Ryan Poles is not worried about that. “I feel really confident that we can get a deal done,” Poles said, adding that the team has already begun negotiations with him.
“I think it’s capitalizing right now because you start to lose opportunities,” Poles said about trading for Sweat. “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.”
Contract negotiations are something Sweat is having his representation worry about. But, for him to sign a long-term deal in Chicago, he did say that a few factors need to be accounted for.
“I think all that goes into play from financial to the people around me to the players in the building, all that type of stuff like that,” Sweat said. “I just got here. I’m still trying to figure out where I’m going to lay my head at tonight.”
At 27 years old, Sweat is someone the Bears should be looking to keep long-term. They have had an anemic pass rush the last few seasons and he would certainly help turn things around in that regard. He has recorded an overall defensive grade of at least 75.6 in the last four seasons with elite run defense grades in addition to his pass-rushing prowess.
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