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Bear Digest

If Packers Land Josh Sweat, Bears Fans Should Be Furious With Ryan Poles

Myles Garrett was never a realistic Bears trade target, but if Josh Sweat ends up with the Packers, Chicago fans would have every reason to be furious.
Gene Chamberlain|
Myles Garrett celebrates a big stop against the Bears.
Myles Garrett celebrates a big stop against the Bears. | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

When the Cleveland Browns traded defensive end Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for a huge package of talent or potential talent, the best place for Bears GM Ryan Poles to be was anyplace there was no internet.

Maybe out in the woods, alone in a nice meadow somewhere, or on a mountain top would have been good places, if not down in a bomb shelter somewhere.

It’s as predictable as July heat. The next trade of a defensive end to some team is going to ignite a firestorm of criticism for Poles: Why didn’t he make that trade for Myles Garrett? What’s the matter with this guy? They have needed another edge rusher since Poles has been GM and the Rams are able to pull off this deal while the Bears look the other way?

It’s a ridiculous overreaction considering the Bears had no ability to come up with the cap space for a Garrett trade, wouldn’t want to give up so much talent, and lacked the one major piece to pull off said trade for the best defensive player in football.

Cap made Garrett unattainable

Cap space is often claimed to be a figment of the imagination of GMs who want to sit on their hands. It’s entirely untrue. The cap is real and while it can be pliable, it is not stretchy enough to have suited the Bears if they pursued Garrett. With guaranteed cash the next two seasons over $30 million and over $40 million, it would have been all but impossible for the Bears to match how well the Rams could absorb Garrett’s salary cap hit.

 The Bears have $11.2 million left in cap space this year according to Overthecap.com, and not $30 million. You can always twist that first year to fit a cap but not with $11.2 million available. The Rams had $26.5 million left when they made the move and could do it. The main reason is when their cost goes up 2027, the Rams have $93.9 million available. That's the fifth most.  The Bears will have only $14.04 million available in 2027. That’s not going to get it done. They also need to be giving Darnell Wright a contract extension and start to gather up bucks for Caleb Williams’ extension by then.

The Bears lacked one of the most intrinsic keys to this trade and that’s a top defensive end to compensate the Browns with for giving up the game’s best. Jared Verse has been in the league two years, made two Pro Bowls and is so good the Bears had to move Joe Thuney out to tackle to face him in the playoffs because they had no one who could block him after Ozzy Trapilo’s injury. Thuney did it, but he’s not a tackle. The Bears had no one like that to send to Cleveland.

The motivated Dayo Odeyingbo was not someone the Browns would have wanted. Austin Booker shows promise but not anything close to Verse. They could have traded Montez Sweat, but even he doesn’t have Verse’s credentials. He’s 30 now and has one Pro Bowl berth.

Besides, if Sweat was in such a trade they Bears still would have a big hole in the defensive end rotation. Garrett is only one man, not two, although it sometimes seems he is.

Besides all of that, the Bears are in a different situation than the Rams, trying to build a young team into a perennial power while the Rams ARE a perennial power that can take chances on trading draft picks for veterans. Trade away three draft picks on Days 1 and 2 when your starting running back is out of contract  next year, you could probably use two good, young defensive tackles, your left tackle situation is precarious, and cornerback looks shaky, and people are going to holler negligence at draft time.  

The Bears have several unmet needs, not just an edge player. They need those draft picks and once their lineup is satisfied they can start taking chances on big names. Besides, the Packers’ experience last year with Micah Parsons’ injury should sour anyone on trading the store for one edge no matter how good. The Bears should know all about it anyway, after the Khalil Mack years.

Who the Bears should pusue

All of this said, there is one defensive end out there and available. If he gets traded where rumors are taking him, then Poles should get a good, swift kick.

It’s another Sweat, Josh. The rumor mill has the Cardinals trading Sweat to the Packers. Some of those even list the price as a third- to a fifth-round pick.

The Packers know it’s not likely Parsons will be 100% by the start of the season and having another edge threat like Sweat would help then. It would really be a plus once Parsons is over effects of the torn ACL. 

If the Packers can trade for Sweat, why can’t the Bears? This isn’t a trade that is going to cost them the franchise the way a Myles Garrett move would have.   

Whether any of this is real is open to debate. The original report was from a questionable source and since then The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman has confirmed nothing is going on straight from the horse’s mouth, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst. That’s a legitimate source.

Regardless, if there is any chance the Bears could obtain Sweat and do it for a price in the range suggested by some of these rumors, they need to be in on this.  

Since 2021, his fourth season, Sweat averages nine sacks a year and gets real pressure. He has 91 QB hits in those five seasons. He has 133 pressures in those five seasons, and that’s not Pro Football Focus pressures. PFF tends to allow for a pressure if you wink at the QB. Pro Football Reference/Stathead gives a pressure when it’s due.

This would be a player the Bears should pursue a trade for if the trade demands are not too stringent.  If the Packers want him, then the Bears should be in on it  because having him would benefit them another way.

If there is a trade for him to Green Bay, that would be something for Bears fans to really be mad at Poles about.

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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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