Montez Sweat is heating up at the right time for the Bears, and he’s proving he can be the catalyst for the run they’re trying to make
Chicago needs a star to continue stepping up.
What the Chicago Bears have built in 2025 under new head coach Ben Johnson has been special and completely shifted the expectations of this team after an 8-3 start to the season entering Week 13.
Johnson and his coaching staff have instilled belief back into the locker room, the organization, and the fanbase that this can not only be a winning team, but a playoff contender in a very competitive NFC conference, but more work is still needed to reach that point.
The Bears proved they have some good talented players needed to win games in this league with the right staff in place but good players aren’t enough to prove you can truly compete against the best teams in the world, and that’s what the Bears will be up against starting on Friday.
To really prove they can really be a contender, Chicago will need a handful of players to raise their game to another level and right now it’s looking like the Bears can count on Montez Sweat to do so.
Montez Sweat is coming back into his own as a game-changer for the Bears defense
Earlier in the season, Johnson was very critical of Sweat’s performance and inability to generate a consistent pass rush for the defense. He was failing to beat one-on-one assignments required out of a top pass rusher and the lack of pressure on the quarterback was killing a depleted secondary.
Sweat took that constructive criticism to heart and realized a flip needed to be switched.
“I think I’m just taking advantage of my opportunities,” Sweat told reporters on Sunday. “Earlier in the season, I feel like I was playing good ball, but the stats are starting to come through for me and it’s a blessing. But, we still got a lot more left on the table to get cleaned up.”
Since the bye week, Sweat has totaled 6.5 sacks, including a 2.0 sack performance on Sunday, his first 2+ sack game since Week 15 of the 2023 season. He’s starting to consistently win those opportunities and most importantly finish through with the sacks in key moments.
“He’s been heating up since the bye week,” Johnson said of Sweat after the game. “You’ve just felt it each week. He seems to impact the game a little bit more each week. It’s good to see that come on just like that… I think he’s just capitalizing on those opportunities. He’s been a good player for a long time, it’s been really good to see.”
The Bears invested a lot into Sweat expecting to get an elite difference-maker off the edge for the defense and getting him back to that level has critical for this team. Just look at the division alone this week. The Green Bay Packers got a multi-sack performance out of Micah Parsons and the Detroit Lions had a game-winning sack from Aidan Hutchinson in overtime in both their wins on Sunday.
Sweat showed against the Steelers he still has the ability to be a guy like that for Chicago and they’ll need him to continue heating up because he truly can be the catalyst for the run this team is aiming to make over the next few weeks.
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