LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Montez Sweat’s sack numbers are down this season. A simple stat sheet will show you that, and the fact it’s the lowest total since a 2021 season where he only played 10 games.

That’s not what you want from someone who signed a $98 million contract extension that runs through the 2027 season. It’s about true impact plays like sacks and forced fumbles with players like this, the talented ones who also draw extra attention.

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That’s definitely the case with Sweat in Chicago, where there’s no intimidating threat coming off the opposite edge. That means he’s getting the double teams and chips on a regular basis, schematic designs to slow an edge rusher down.

Frequency of those instances is tough to find, but a closer look at Sweat’s overall numbers show percentages that are at or above typical levels.

Sweat has a team-high 48 total pressures, with a 14.7 quarterback pressure percentage that ranks 16^th in the league, per NFL NextGen Stats. It’s slightly higher than last year, though, when he had 12.5 sacks.

His 1.7 sack percentage is down over last year, when it was 2.5%. He was at 2.4% in 2020, when he had nine sacks in 2020, but this year’s sack percentage is very close to a 2022 season where he had eight sacks.

That’s a lot of numbers to swallow all at once, but the point is that he’s at or hovering around pressure percentages that have earned solid sack totals.

There is one number, however, that’s much lower. His total number of pass rush snaps. He’s at 327 through 15 games (he missed one with injury), his lowest total through this many games since his rookie year.

We say all that to say this: Sweat’s sack totals are likely only this low because he’s getting far fewer bites at the apple.

He had 499 pass rush snaps in 2023 (12.5 sacks, 72 pressures), 434 in 2022 (8.0 sacks, 67 pressures) and 380 in 2020 (9.0 sacks, 51 pressures).

His 0.88 average get off is around his career average. His average time to a sack (4.53 seconds) is lower than it was last year, though his average time to pressure (3.05 seconds) is higher than the last two seasons.

Sweat has played 62 percent of the Bears’ defensive snaps, with a Week 17 loss to Seattle below 50 percent and several other games hovering around the 50-50 line.

“What we try and do is just make sure that we utilize the rotation in a manner that gives him a chance, specifically with him, a chance to be as explosive as possible in critical situations,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “Montez is a three-down player. He could impact the game on first and second down, regardless of the personnel. We’d really like for him to be in a great position to impact the game on third down, two-minute, to manage his snap count. So that’s really all there is to it.”

Sweat has been questionable three times this season with ankle, toe and shin injuries but missed only one game. Those are all factors as we try to evaluate a season for a star Bears pass rusher who fell below the mark in terms of splash plays but was more productive with the opportunities given than some might think.