Montez Sweat played 70 percent of Chicago’s defensive snaps in a 31-7 humiliation to Green Bay and recorded two pressures — further proof that the Bears are finding out in real time how much of this roster was never what the contracts said it was. That much was already true before the league confirmed anything else.
Adam Schefter reported that the NFL suspended Sweat two games for violating its performance-enhancing substances policy. He’ll miss games against the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots and is eligible for reinstatement Oct. 23, according to Yahoo Sports. The league didn’t disclose what substance triggered it, and there’s no version of this where guessing helps anybody.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/2110101846824215027
The timing makes it tempting to connect the dots backward, like the PEDs explain why Sweat was a non-factor against Green Bay. They don’t. The suspension covers two games that haven’t been played yet; it has nothing to do with the one that already happened, the one where a Score 670 Chicago broadcaster called Sweat invisible for most of the afternoon: “Montez Sweat, anybody seen him? … he’s getting paid to make an impact.”
He barely left the field and still finished with one quarterback hit on 32 pass-rush snaps to show for it. Two separate timelines, two separate problems, and only one of them explains that loss.
Montez Sweat’s suspension lands on top of that. The defense already lost Dayo Odeyingbo to a quadriceps injury in the same Packers game, and Chicago is now activating Shemar Turner off PUP because it needs anyone who can rush the passer. None of that is speculation about depth. It’s what happens when the most expensive piece of a unit goes down and the players behind him were never supposed to be playing this many snaps this early.
I adopted this team against my will — moved to Chicago for a relationship that didn’t survive, kept the apartment, inherited the Bears by proximity — and even I know what a 911 call to the physically-unable-to-perform list looks like.
Go back to the number, because the number is the real argument here. Chicago traded for Sweat at the 2023 deadline and signed him to a four-year, $98 million extension, $72.9 million guaranteed, fifth-highest average salary among pass rushers in the league at $24.5 million a year, according to CBS Sports. Five games into the season, he has two sacks, four quarterback hits, and seven tackles.
Those are rotational-piece numbers attached to a starter’s contract. A $98 million pass rusher who was invisible in the Bears’ worst loss of the year didn’t need a failed test to be the problem.
That’s the pattern with this team now, the same conversation Ben Johnson’s offense has already had to answer for this season, just filed on defense this time. Every week something new confirms what last week already told you, and nobody at Halas Hall has offered a counter-example yet.
Two weeks off won’t make him visible again.
