Montez Sweat is entering his seventh season in the NFL, and this one might be the most complex.
Since Sweat was drafted No. 26 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft, he has played for five defensive coordinators: Greg Manusky, Jack Del Rio, Matt Eberflus (after Alan Williams was fired), Eric Washington, and now Dennis Allen.
His current defensive signal-caller is different from the rest. When Sweat was asked about his thoughts on Allen on Wednesday, the veteran defensive end took seven seconds to answer. He described him as a “complex individual” and highlighted Allen’s “fronts and schemes and things that he can attack the offense with.”
It’s an interesting way of describing a defensive coordinator, but Allen’s complexity could be what helps unlock Sweat to become the multiplier the Bears envisioned him to be when they traded a second-round draft pick to acquire him in the middle of the 2023 season.
Sweat provided more insight on why he used “complex” to describe Allen.
“Well, I mean, I’m trying to learn a new defense right now so it presents its challenges—different fronts, different coverages, and things like that,” Sweat said. “It’s just more than I heard to learn in the past I would say. So he’s definitely a little more complex than the DCs I had in the past.”
In 16 games last season, Sweat played 616 total defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. A majority of those snaps (488) had Sweat lined up to the defense’s left side. In 2023, Sweat played 764 total snaps for the Commanders and Bears and was on the left side of the formation for 657 of those snaps.
When opposing offenses had to game plan for Sweat, most times those teams knew which side of the field he would line up on. Teams have a week or less to game plan for their opponents, and playing Sweat primarily to one side gave opponents one less detail to think about.
From how Sweat described Allen and his defense, that won’t be how the 6-foot-6, 262-pound pass rusher is utilized. Another wrinkle to consider with this defensive line is free-agent acquisition Dayo Odeyingbo. Throughout his time in Indianapolis, he lined up all over the D-line but was featured mostly on the defense’s left side, similar to Sweat.
At this point in the season, Allen is still experimenting and trying different fronts and challenging his players with plenty of different variations.
For Sweat to become comfortable in this new defense, it will take time and reps. Even though he’s learning the new scheme, he knows what is expected of him.
"I don’t think much has changed,” Sweat said. “Football is football, I'm just probably playing from another alignment or from another stance. But at the end of the day, I was brought here to affect the QB, that's what I intend on doing."
