Time for the bags for Montez Sweat, no matter where he starts

The newly revamped Bears pass rush will first have to get going behind Will Levis. That includes Sweat lining up to attack Levis from multiple spots on defense, something he didn’t do after arriving last year after arriving midseason to rack up six Bears sacks and 12 1/2 on the year.

By the way, Tennessee’s offensive line allowed 64 sacks last year. Only three teams allowed more. Sweat had two sacks in his last game two years ago against the Titans, and also had four hits on quarterbacks.

“Well, I mean, different head coach, different offensive coordinator,” Sweat said. “They have some of the same guys on offense, but it’s a different team than it was two years ago.

“I just have to focus on the scouting report I’m writing this year and the things they’ve shown us and just keep going.”

The key word there is “movement,” because that’s what he’ll be doing. He won’t be at his usual left defensive end all day.

“We need to put him in a position where we can expect him to produce the most, the highest rate of production,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “At the same time, we want to challenge or utilize his ability to line up in multiple spots and challenge different pieces of protection, pieces of individual protection and what they do as a whole.”

We’ll try not to overdo it and it could be a good move considering he’s nursing a toe injury and has only been taking part in part training this week.

“We don’t want to come up with ideas that take away from what we know he can bring to us as a left guard,” Washington said.

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Placing the sweat on the right side or even in one of the attacking areas is intended to prevent chipping passes, which are attacks where a player comes from deep and quickly blocks an attacking player from entering the passing action.

“I appreciate that,” Sweat said. “It gives the offense a different look. … It’s hard to throw you off if they don’t know where you’re going to be when they come off our offense.

“So I mean, it’s a challenge to understand different positions and routes, how different sides of the pitch like to rush, and also to learn different formations. So yeah, I like that.”

Sweat has more work to do than just move to avoid debris. In addition to his natural pass rush skills, he now has all of training camp and the preseason under his belt, as well as half of last season. Coming to Chicago in exchange for a second-round pick just before the trade deadline meant throwing him into the fray without much mental preparation.

“Yeah, I feel a lot more comfortable than I did last year, just knowing the defense and knowing where I can play different positions along the line and all that kind of stuff,” Sweat said. “So yeah, I just feel a lot more comfortable.”

Sweat’s other big advantage is that he has more help this year, or at least more than he had at the end of last season. Adding Darrell Taylor as an extra tackler to Sweat, starter DeMarcus Walker and backups Daniel Hardy, Dominique Robinson and Austin Booker means there are six guys who could be on the offense. It seems unlikely that all of them will be active, but Taylor has averaged more than seven sacks per season for three years.

“I mean, it’s very important,” Sweat said. “Really, I have to agree with everyone on that line. But definitely the double whammy on the other side definitely really complements the rush.

“It disarms me. Sometimes it draws more attention. It can create more one-on-ones for me or him. Yes, but yes, it’s something that’s needed.”

Anything that can help the offense now that they can finally loosen up and chase down quarterbacks.

“Yeah, I mean, we’re big boys and we’re hungry,” Sweat said. “We just like to eat, we like to hunt. We like to go outside.”

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