Montez Sweat is back in the mix for the Chicago Bears, and it didn’t take long.
The team announced that Sweat has been activated from the Active/Non-Football Illness list just one day after he was placed there, and he appears set to practice on Thursday. For Bears fans wondering how long their top edge threat would be sidelined, the answer turned out to be: not long at all.
That’s a welcome development for a defense that leans heavily on Sweat’s presence. He led the Bears with 10 sacks last season and was recently voted one of the NFL’s top 100 players by his peers. With the pass rush still lacking proven depth, Sweat remains one of the most important pieces on the roster.
There was already plenty of optimism around him before this update. During OTAs, head coach Ben Johnson praised Sweat’s 2025 performance so highly that he called it the best season of Sweat’s NFL career.
His return also eases some of the burden on Austin Booker and Dayo Odeyingbo, who are battling for the starting edge rusher job opposite each other. Booker has the coaching staff’s confidence after finishing strong with 4.5 sacks in 10 games. Odeyingbo, meanwhile, signed a three-year, $48 million deal last year but managed just one sack in eight games before a season-ending injury opened the door for Booker.
If the Bears can also get cornerback Kyler Gordon back in the starting lineup before the 2026 season, they’ll be in a strong spot. For now, Sweat is back where Chicago needs him most: up front, chasing quarterbacks.
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