Montez Sweat showing improved pass rush
The Commanders’ edge rusher is starting to show signs of fulfilling his promising potential as a consistently strong pass rusher.
Last week after the Titans game, I wrote about how the Commanders defensive line was impressive and that the likes of Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and Montez Sweat were all playing at a high level. The trio backed up that performance with another strong one against the Bears on Thursday night. I could easily have done a piece highlighting all three again, but this week I wanted to focus a little more on Montez Sweat.
Whenever I’ve watched Sweat this season, he’s stood out in positive ways but not necessarily for his pass rushing. He’s a very strong run defender that he doesn’t get a ton of credit for, setting the edge and making plays on outside runs or forcing them back inside to the rest of the defense. He also makes a lot of plays against things like jet sweeps and screens that don’t get the attention they deserve. In fact, he blew up a jet sweep against the Bears.
Here we see Sweat aligned outside the left tackle in a “wide 9” technique, giving himself the best angle to shoot off the ball and work around the tackle to rush the quarterback. However, the Bears run a jet sweep right at him, hoping he’ll either charge up the field and run himself out of the play or work down the line expecting a run inside. Sweat reads the play perfectly though. He comes off the snap and spots the left tackle working out towards him.
The tackle is quite clearly trying to run block rather than just using a quick set for pass protection, so Sweat immediately widens his stance to give him a strong foundation while also lowering himself to get under the left tackle’s pad level and gain leverage. Sweat gets his hands on the chest of the tackle and extends them, stacking up the tackle. From there, he can read the runner and react to his cut. The runner can’t get the edge because Sweat protects it so well, so he attempts to cut back inside, but trips over the foot of the tackle as Sweat pushes him back.
Plays like that will often go unnoticed or forgotten about quickly because they weren’t sacks or turnovers, but they’re big plays in their own right and they’re the type of plays that Sweat makes on a regular basis. They mean that even when Sweat isn’t generating much pressure while rushing the passer, he’s still having a significant impact on the game.
As a pass rusher, Sweat’s game has developed year on year since he entered the NFL. As a rookie, he was very raw with great tools like his length, burst and overall athletic profile, but he lacked technique. Since then he’s developed some different moves. The most important and probably most effective is a nice long-arm rush that makes use of his length advantage. He started to use that as his default rush more frequently in his second year and by now, he understands just how much of an asset his length can be.
On this play, we see Sweat aligned in that similar wide alignment as before, looking to get the best angle around the edge to the quarterback. As he takes his first steps, he extends out his inside arm and lands it on the chest of the tackle. With his arm length, Sweat knows that if he can lock out his arm at full extension, then the tackle is going to struggle to reach and get his hands on him. He works to lock out that inside arm while also landing his outside arm to the outside shoulder of the tackle. With both hands inside, Sweat extends his arms and locks his elbows, getting under the tackle’s pad level and pushing him up and backwards.
The tackle is unable to replace his hands because of Sweats’ length. He attempts to replace his outside hand, but Sweat spots it and adjusts his outside hand to catch the tackle’s hand and prevent him from resetting it. Sweat uses his inside arm to drive the tackle back towards the quarterback before peeling off and hitting the quarterback as he delivers the throw, causing the ball to land incomplete.
That length advantage will always cause issues for tackles as long as Sweat makes use of it. He’s gotten better each year and using it more and more, but he hasn’t always developed the other types of rushes to help build around it. This year though, and especially in this game against the Bears, we’ve seen Sweat start to flash a little more to his game.
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