The Chicago Bears have appeared ready for weeks to enter the regular season while making a massive wager that the defensive end group they have assembled behind Montez Sweat can remain healthy and prove productive after neither was the case in 2025.
But on Thursday, August 6, Sweat left the field with an undisclosed injury and hastily brought to the forefront all of the potential problems and valid concerns over the depth of the position group, which the Bears have refused to address in any way all offseason.
"Bears DE Montez Sweat heading into the building with trainer Andre Tucker," reported Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune on X. "Like [LT] Braxton Jones, he was walking on his own. But two key players have left so far."
Von Miller remains among top options available to Bears to enhance pass rush via free agency
Whether Sweat, who accounted for 10 of the defense's 35 total sacks in 2025, is seriously hurt or not, his exit from practice shines a spotlight on how thin the defense's depth is off the edge.
A blockbuster trade proposal for Maxx Crosby is a potential solution, though Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Wednesday that he expects talks around the five-time Pro Bowler won't truly heat up until the NFL's November 10 trade deadline approaches.
Another pathway available to Chicago is free agency, but the Bears' decision to drag their feet and bet on Austin Booker and Dayo Odeyingbo instead has limited the pool of available players. Jadeveon Clowney, for instance, would have made considerable sense but recently inked a deal with the Houston Texans. Earlier in the offseason, Cameron Jordan returned to the New Orleans Saints.
One player who remains on the market is Von Miller, a two-time Super Bowl winner who put up nine sacks across 420 snaps for the Washington Commanders in 2025. Miller, a seven-time All-Pro honoree, will enter his 15th professional campaign in 2026 at the age of 37.
Gone are Miller's days of dominating at the highest level of the sport, but he has proven himself a consistently viable pass-rush specialist since his career changed by way of an ankle injury in 2020 that caused him to miss that entire season.
Miller's skill set is exactly what Chicago needs, particularly given the team can't count on generating a ton of pressure up the middle of the defensive line. Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter produced six sacks in 2025, so if he can replicate those efforts, and Grady Jarrett can bounce back from a down season, the Bears should be able to generate some pocket disruption from the inside.
Odeyingbo is also rotating inside on pass-rush downs frequently during camp, which should provide more juice to that part of the field -- if he can remain healthy.
However, if Odeyingbo isn't going to come off the edge regularly on obvious throwing downs, then it makes even more sense for the Bears to consider bolstering the defensive end group with a player like Miller -- particularly in the context of Sweat's injury Thursday.
| More Bears News and Rumors |
Add us as a preferred source on Google