Montez Sweat earns respect at Halas Hall after embarrassing ranking

Pro Football Focus' Ryan Smith ranked the top 32 edge rushers in the NFL and you need to go down the list to No. 25 before you find Sweat. And when you do, it's not even Montez but Cardinals edge Josh Sweat, the former Eagles edge who led Philadelphia's defensive charge in the Super Bowl win with 2 1/2 sacks of Patrick Mahomes.

Montez Sweat is ranked 31st out of the top 32 edges even with the eighth highest average contract. He's even two behind free agent Za'Darius Smith, the only edge on the list without a team. Sweat is rated one behind Kyle Van Noy of Baltimore.

"Sweat’s first full season in Chicago wasn’t quite on par with his tenure in Washington—he earned a 65.6 PFF grade in 2024 after grading no lower than 74.8 from 2020 to 2023—but he still led the Bears with 49 total pressures. It marked the fourth time in six seasons he’s reached that threshold," Smith wrote.

From the sound of it, Sweat is determined to rebound from a sub-par season with 5 1/2 sacks.

"I don't think there is anyone in this building working as hard as Montez Sweat right now," GM Ryan Poles told AM-1000's Dave Kaplan and J. Hood. "He's pushing weight, he's getting strong, he's getting in shape. He's locked in like I've never seen him before."

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen believes Sweat's effectiveness will improve because of all the improvements made on the interior of the defensive line, namely Grady Jarrett and Shemar Turner being added, Andrew Billings returning from torn pectoral muscle and Gervon Dexter's expected improvement.

"Everybody talks about these speed rushers off the edge, but really it's about the interior pocket pressure that you have to have," Allen said. "That allows guys like Montez Sweat to be able to have some success coming off the edge.”

The Bears expect the type of production from Sweat that he had in his first eight games, and with it perhaps that rating improves.