Bear Digest

How Super Bowl may have altered Bears thinking in free agency

Several potential free agents in the Super Bowl looked like they could be Bears targets in March but their play Sunday could have impacted the future.
Gene Chamberlain|
Josh Sweat gets to Patrick Mahomes for a sack in the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX win over the Chiefs.
Josh Sweat gets to Patrick Mahomes for a sack in the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX win over the Chiefs. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The hot commodity for the Bears before the Eagles and Chiefs met in a disappointing Super Blowout Sunday was Chiefs guard Trey Smith.

It's quite likely some of the luster wore off Smith, although not a lot.

What the game meant for the Bears moving forward is they have a chance to improve in free agency at another position besides the offensive line, although that definitely must happen.

The big battle on the line was Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter, the player the Bears could have drafted, against guard Trey Smith, who could go into free agency and be of interest to the Bears.


While Smith did have one holding penalty, Carter had no tackles and had no sacks.

What needs to be noticed about Smith that hasn't really been discussed to date is that after a dominant regular season, he had the worst Pro Football Focus blocking grade of all the Kansas City Chiefs offensive linemen for the two AFC playoff games. And it wasn't even close. In fact, Smith's 46.6 grade on offense for the two postseason games was the lowest grade for any Chiefs offensive player.

With Smith's Super Bowl grade added in, he had the second-worst postseason offensive grade for all Chiefs linemen.

It's a reason to take a second look, although it is only the analysis of one website.

Eagles guard Mekhi Becton, a free agent come March, didn't have a particularly bad Super Bowl. He didn't allow a Super Bowl sack. However, he was part of the Eagles offensive line that had trouble establishing the run against the Chiefs front.

While the final overall yardage total on the ground looked fine at 145 yards, the Eagles had only 2.7 yards rushing by Saquon Barkley in the first half and 3.1 by Jalen Hurts then. They averaged only 3.0 for the game as their 135 yards came on 45 carries, with all the run totals going up in the second half as they looked to run clock after the game became a rout.

It's safe to say Becton didn't hurt his stock.

The player who really came out of the Super Bowl looking good for the Bears in free agency was not an offensive lineman at all but edge rusher Josh Sweat of the Eagles. Sweat made 2 1/2 sacks, two tackles for loss, three pressures and three quarterback his. His six tackles were the second-highest total for the team, which isn't an easy task for a player who is on the edge.

Sweat had eight sacks on the season as these were his only two in the postseason but they're likely to make a big impact when free agency comes around. He has never been a player to register high sack totals and has had double figures only once for a regular season in his career, but he has been consistent over the last five years with 39 sacks.

Pro Football Focus projects Sweat at $18 million a year for three years while Spotrac.com sets it at $18.8 million a year for three years.

Such a contract would put Sweat outside of the top 10 for average annual salary among edges but very close, at 11th.

Would the Bears be willing to pay two edges named Sweat so high? That would mean two edges for $43.3 million a year.

GM Ryan Poles hasn't been so willing to dump cash around like this so far, but it's the dawn of a new era.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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