Just as the Chicago Bears could be welcoming back their best offensive player in quarterback Caleb Williams this week, the team found out that it will be without, arguably, its best defensive player in Montez Sweat. The Pro Bowl defensive end was suspended by the NFL on Tuesday for two games due to a violation of the league’s performance-enhancing drug (PED) policy.
The exact substance that caused the violation was not disclosed, but there is a long list of possibilities, per the NFL Players Association, ranging from steroids to hormones to stimulants. Sweat will miss Sunday’s game at the Atlanta Falcons and the Week 7 Thursday Night Football matchup versus the New England Patriots.
There’s never a good time for a player to get suspended, but this ban comes at an especially pivotal time for Sweat. He likely had the Falcons game circled on his calendar as Sweat is an Atlanta native who starred at Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, Ga., northeast of Atlanta. This would have been Sweat’s first road game in Atlanta since joining the Bears in 2023.
After moving Sweat to the inactive list, the Bears moved fellow defensive lineman Shemar Turner to the active list. He has not played this season and was on the injured reserve/physically unable to perform list since the start of the year due to rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered in the 2025 season.
According to the NFL Players Association, players can be randomly tested for PEDs any day of the year. Sweat played in Chicago’s Sunday loss to the Green Bay Packers, in which he started, played 43 snaps, and recorded zero tackles and one quarterback hit. On the season, Sweat has started all five of Chicago’s games and recorded seven tackles and 2.0 sacks. His projected season stats are down across the board after he had 10 sacks last year to lead the team.
Sweat is in his third full season with the Bears and fourth overall. He was traded to the team from the Washington Commanders in 2023. During that season, Sweat led the Commanders with 6.5 sacks in eight games, then led the Bears with 6.0 sacks in nine games, becoming the first and only player in NFL history to lead two teams in sacks in a single season.
That season also culminated in the only Pro Bowl nod of Sweat’s career. Since being drafted in the first round in 2019, the defensive end has started all 114 games he’s played in, recording 314 tackles and 59 sacks.
Although Sweat has had meager production this year, his absence will be a big blow to Chicago’s defense against a couple of ascending offenses. No team scored more points in Week 4 than the 45 Atlanta put on the New Orleans Saints, and no team scored more points in Week 5 than the Patriots scored on the New York Jets. Both Atlanta and New England have offensive units that rank in the top 10 in total yards.
Chicago’s defense, as a whole, has outperformed expectations this season after struggles in 2025. The Bears rank in the top 10 in both points allowed and yards allowed after ranking among the bottom 10 in both categories a year ago.
Sweat’s suspension is one of three notable ones levied by the NFL since Monday. San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw was hit with a one-game ban on Monday, which came 24 hours after an altercation in the team’s Sunday win over the Seattle Seahawks. During a sideline skirmish, Greenlaw, with his helmet on, headbutted Seattle linebacker Ernest Jones, who did not have a helmet on, which resulted in a one-game suspension.
Sweat’s ban Tuesday came around the same time the league also suspended Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman Alaric Jackson for his actions following the team’s Monday Night Football defeat to the Buffalo Bills. While players from both teams were exchanging jerseys on the field after the game, Jackson walked up and punched Buffalo linebacker Bradley Chubb in the face before team personnel separated the two. Like Sweat, Jackson received a two-game penalty.
Sweat is the third player to be suspended for performance-enhancing drugs or substances this season. During the preseason, Tennessee Titans defensive back Nazeeh Johnson and Saints wide receiver Brock Rechsteiner were each docked six games.
Sweat will be eligible to rejoin the Bears ahead of their Week 8 matchup on Nov. 2, a Monday night contest at the Seattle Seahawks, with Chicago then facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the next week before a Week 10 bye. After losing in the Divisional Round last season, the Bears are looking to make consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
