On the Montez Sweat trade to the Chicago Bears, we checked in with a personnel executive with another team to gauge reaction and how he sees it, particularly from the Bears’ end.
Insight Into Chicago Bears’ Trade for Montez Sweat
On the Bears, the executive said it would be a surprise to give up a premium piece of draft capital (second-round pick) and not reach a contract extension in the near future for a player on an expiring contract. Thus, it would be surprising if Chicago hasn’t already approached Sweat’s agent (Damarius Bilbo) about a deal.
However, we should point out that the Bears did not extend WR Chase Claypool’s contract last year after giving up a second-round pick at the trade deadline, so it’s not out of the question that they would take a similar approach.
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From a performance standpoint, the executive added that Sweat’s best attributes based on tape study are his power, strength, and effort. But while he has improved as a pass rusher the last two seasons, you’re not going to have to worry about adjusting pass protection to block him. Overall, he called him a solid player but not a game-changer.
We should also add that veteran DE Yannick Ngakoue is playing on a one-year deal, and the Bears don’t really have anyone else who’s ready for a major role at the position.
Second-year DE Dominique Robinson is a player the team was high on coming into the season as a player off the bench, a league source said. However, he was a healthy inactive last week for their game against the host Los Angeles Chargers.
On the Commanders’ end, we noted in our Monday notebook that teams that were in contact with Washington over the past week were getting the impression that they wanted to wait until they played their Week 8 game against the visiting Philadelphia Eagles before deciding whether or not to trade Sweat or fourth-year DE Chase Young.
With the loss to the Eagles, they’ve dropped to the 11th seed in the NFC, yet remain just one game behind the seventh-seeded Minnesota Vikings.
Now with Sweat off the roster, Washington may decide to take a look at rookie ends KJ Henry and Andre Jones Jr.
Henry has only played in one game so far, while Jones has played in seven of the team’s eight games. Yet, almost all of his snaps have come on special teams.
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