It’s Time For Dayo Odeyingbo and Montez Sweat to Step Up ...Middle East

The Chicago Bears are spending too much money on defensive linemen to get so little production.

In other words, the time has come for players like Dayo Odeyingbo and Montez Sweat to elevate their games to a new level.

And what better time than against a Cincinnati Bengals team that trots out an offensive line that Pro Football Focus ranks as the third-worst in the NFL?

ESPN’s Seth Walder shares this chart, which captures how much the Bears’ top edge rushers have struggled this season:

New edge rusher chart! I've adjusted this to show double team rate + chip rate (at edge) on x axis. A little messy because we're mixing data sources (possible overlap) but I think important to get chips in there. Y axis is pass rush win rate at edge.[image or embed]

The first name that popped out to me was Dayo Odeyingbo, who sticks out on this chart for all the wrong reasons. That teammate Montez Sweat is so close to him in proximity on the chart is also concerning. There is no way around it — this defense needs its top two defensive ends to start producing sacks, tackles-for-loss, quarterback hits, and other chaotic events to disrupt opposing offenses.

Dayo Odeyingbo and Montez Sweat need to start producing for the Bears defense

As a long-time believer in the concept that a picture is worth a thousand words, I feel as if this image of Bears defensive lineman Dayo Odeyingbo captures everything you’d want to know about the free-agent signing’s first seven games with Chicago’s football team:

The Bears signed defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo to a lucrative deal early in the NFL offseason. It came after Chicago’s football team was connected to a bevy of defensive line options in free agency. Khalil Mack, Josh Sweat, and Milton Williams were among the most notable names that kept coming up on the rumor mill as possible Bears targets. In the end, they landed on Odeyingbo. Unfortunately, the early returns have not been good.

These are Dayo Odeyingbo’s stats through his first seven games with the Bears:

This feels like a good time to point out that 100 percent of the sack production, two-thirds of the QB hits, and half of the TFLs Dayo Odeyingbo has generated this year came in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings. Simply put: This isn’t enough production for a player making $16 million a year on a contract that paid him $32 million in guarantees. And while there is still plenty of time to show that he earned that payday, Odeyingbo needs to act quickly because the early returns are subpar.

For what it’s worth, it is just a three-year deal for Odeyingbo. But if you were looking for an early out, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Cutting Odeyingbo after this season would result in the team losing $1.5 million in cap space and getting hit with $22 million worth of dead money. The team could get out of the deal (creating $15 million in cap space while taking a $4.5 million dead cap hit in the process) in 2027; going that route would mean that the contract was a clunker. Plus, it would further cement how Chicago’s front office wasted multiple years of favorable cap situations that come with having a quarterback on a rookie-scale deal.

All in all, Dayo Odeyingbo needs to get it together. It’s not as if there isn’t talent there for Odeyingbo. The 26-year-old defensive lineman checks in at 6-foot-5 and 282 pounds. He has athleticism, length, and speed. And while he showed that he can get to the quarterback on occasion while he was with the Indianapolis Colts, he hasn’t flashed that potential since joining the Bears. That is incredibly frustrating.

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With that being said, Dayo Odeyingbo isn’t the only disappointing player along Chicago’s defensive line. Montez Sweat is trending in the right direction after collecting quarterback sacks in back-to-back games. Moreover, the stat lines from Sweat in his last two games (2 sacks, 7 solo tackles, 3 tackles-for-loss, 3 quarterback hits) are a sign that Chicago’s top defensive end is starting to round into form. But his stat line from his first five games of the year (1 sack, 3 TFLs, 3 quarterback hits) leaves much to be desired.

While last week’s game against the Baltimore Ravens felt like a litmus test for the Bears as a whole, I think that Sunday’s showdown in Cincinnati has a litmus test type of vibe to it. Between a shoddy offensive line and a relatively immobile quarterback in Joe Flacco lining up under center, players like Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo have no excuse not to come up with big games in Week 9. I look forward to seeing how things shake out.

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