Shaquan Montez Sweat or more popularly known as Montez Sweat, is a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). Montez Sweat played college football with Copiah–Lincoln, Mississippi State and Michigan. He was drafted in by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft as the 26th overall pick.
The Washington Commanders have decided to trade out Montez Sweat to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a second round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The deal draws curtains to Sweat’s time with the Commanders of four years. This is the first player related decision taken by new owner Josh Harris who has earlier said he’s planning for the future.
Montez Sweat signed a rookie contract with the Commanders worth $11,641,260 for four years. This includes a signing bonus of $6,486,372 and an average annual salary of $2,910,315. His base salary with the Chicago Bears as per Spotrac, is $11,500,000. Montez is in the final year of his rookie contract and is set to become a free agent in 2024.
Montez Sweat’s trade move is purely financial as HC Ron Rivera was impressed with him
Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera declined to answer any questions related to change in personnel adree their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Rivera made it very clear he would only like to answer questions pertaining to the game. “I’m not going to answer any questions on personnel,” Ron Rivera said. “I’ll talk about the game we just played…I’m not going to get into personnel.”
TRADE: Commanders DE Montez Sweat traded to Bears for second-round pick. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/xWqkY6RCkL
— NFL (@NFL) October 31, 2023
However, Ron Rivera earlier had spoken about Montez Sweat as a man with great potential for the team. He said Montez brings in support for the other guys in the big explosive finishes which was missing last season. It’s difficult to understand why they would trade him out even after such statements.
“It’s kind of the thing that watching [Defensive Line] Coach [Jeff Zgonina] Z and [Assistant Defensive Line] Coach [Ryan] Kerrigan both work with those guys about finishing,” Rivera said. “Last year it was getting Daron to finish and make those big explosives, which we saw and then this year, we’re seeing that from Montez as far as finishing and that’s been really kind of cool to see.”
The logical answer to this deal would be that Josh Harris is looking to restructure the roster and is saving money. The Commanders are set to save $6.3 million in salary with Sweat gone. Letting Sweat go increases their draft capital which will be handy next year.