It became known early on that Montez Sweat wasn’t happy when the Washington Commanders dealt him to the Chicago Bears last October. Not only did it come as a surprise, but he also had wanted to go to the Atlanta Falcons, who were also vying for his services. However, Chicago paid the higher price. It was an abrupt change of scenery he didn’t ask for and one he felt he didn’t deserve, considering he was having his best season at that point. Still, there wasn’t anything he could do. Rather than complicate his situation further by trying to hold out, he quickly signed a lucrative contract extension to stay in Chicago.
A few weeks later, he began to realize the trade might’ve been a blessing in disguise. He admitted this to Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times in a recent interview.
“I definitely made a transition to a better spot for me,” he told the Sun-Times. “[Shoot], this was my first Pro Bowl and first double-digit sack year and all those types of things. I reached some accolades that I always had aspirations of getting, but never reached in Washington. You could definitely say it worked out better for me.”
A big reason for the renewed optimism is the chance to work with Matt Eberflus. Sweat stated that the Bears head coach, who is also the de-facto defensive coordinator, has utilized the defensive end in ways the coaches never did in Washington. It’s unlocking areas of his game he never knew existed.
“With this defense, you can move around a lot, and there’s certain plays imposed for me to create a mismatch,” Sweat said. “It definitely opened up my game a little bit.”
Montez Sweat is making a rather notable statement.
Keep in mind that he was supposedly playing for a proven veteran staff in Washington. Ron Rivera was the head coach, and Jack Del Rio had many years of experience as a defensive coordinator. He outright said Eberflus has outperformed both of them in understanding how to maximize his talents. It is pretty clear that the defensive end still holds a lot of bitterness over what happened in Washington. Despite having such a talented roster, it felt like too many people in the building were okay with losing. It was enough to sap a man’s will to compete.
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It didn’t take long for Montez Sweat to realize that wasn’t the case in Chicago. Eberflus has established a culture of high standards and unrelenting hard work. Effort and intensity are expected from everybody, players and coaches alike. If you don’t meet the standard, you aren’t around long. This has created an atmosphere of energy and competitiveness. The Bears finished 5-3 down the stretch last season. They feel they’re on the cusp of turning a corner. It seems Sweat agrees.
It’s good that the GM had faith in the HC. They were thrown in the rebuild together and weathered the 3-14, 7-10 seasons. Eberflus was the glue that held the team together. Now with better coaches in place and what looks like good draft picks in 25 they can continue on adding more young talent. The secret is to build thru the draft and keeping the players you have coached to become good players and developing depth. Sure, people are going to come and go but as long as the principles of the team stay, Chicago should be good for… Read more »
This is part of why I hated how the Chicago media just wanted to fire Eberflus as soon as the tanking occurred. I had already wondered why the Colts were competing with no apparent talent. I studied them and it became apparent it was all Defense. I had already learned from watching the Miami Dolphins Nick Saban tenure, that you could add 4 new DL and the team would go .500. Interesting stuff to see a college coach come to the NFL and do that. But Eberflus was a Tampa 2/Dungy/Lovie guy. And it worked great as we’ve seem in… Read more »
Washington also had an ugly and terrible owner in numerous ways which had to adversely impact on most of the players.