Montez Sweat

Introduction

Montez Sweat, the Chicago Bears’ top pass rusher and a 2023 Pro Bowl defensive end, was suspended two games without pay by the NFL on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substances policy — a ruling that removes him from a 3-2 Bears team just as it tries to climb out of a 31-7 loss to the rival Packers. The league did not disclose what substance Sweat was found to have taken, and he will miss road games against the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots before becoming eligible to return on November 2.

Background Information

Sweat, 30, entered the NFL as Washington’s first-round pick in 2019 and has been a full-time starter ever since, missing just one game over the last four seasons. He earned the only Pro Bowl selection of his career in 2023, when he posted a career-high 12.5 sacks — the same season Chicago acquired him in a midseason trade from Washington — and he led the Bears in sacks with 10 in 2025, the second-highest total of his career, along with team leads in tackles for loss and quarterback hits. He is in the third year of a four-year, $98 million contract.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

League discipline. The two-game ban is an official NFL ruling, not an allegation in dispute: the league suspended Sweat for violating its performance-enhancing substances policy but did not disclose the substance. Sweat has not publicly confirmed or explained the violation, and no appeal or criminal proceeding has been reported.

The NFL announced the suspension on Tuesday, October 13, stating that Sweat violated the league’s performance-enhancing substances policy, with the ban taking him out for the club’s next two games without pay; the league provided no details on the substance or circumstances. Under the ruling he sits out the Week 6 road game against the Falcons and the Week 7 “Thursday Night Football” home date with the Patriots, with reinstatement eligibility arriving for the “Monday Night Football” trip to Seattle on November 2 — against the reigning Super Bowl-champion Seahawks.

The ban lands on a slow statistical start that makes it, if anything, more puzzling: through five games Sweat has two sacks and seven tackles, his 8.8 percent quarterback pressure rate is lower than any season-long mark of his career, and his time-to-sack of 7.18 seconds is a career worst by a wide margin — numbers CBS Sports framed as a pass rusher whose production has fallen off sharply rather than spiked. The suspension also ends one of the league’s quietest availability streaks: since arriving in Chicago three years ago he had missed exactly one game, a 2024 loss to Arizona.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Coverage converged on the timing as much as the ban: The Post called the suspension a “brutal Bears blow” for a team coming off its worst defensive performance of the season, a 31-7 rivalry loss in which Green Bay rolled up 428 total yards, and noted Chicago is now without its top pass rusher while still waiting on injured quarterback Caleb Williams to return from a Week 2 hamstring injury. CBS Sports laid out the on-field cost in detail: edge tandem Dayo Odeyingbo — himself nursing a questionable status — and backup Austin Booker must absorb the snaps, though Booker has out-produced Sweat this season from the bench, leading the team in sacks, quarterback hits and tackles for loss. Sweat has made no public statement on the suspension.

Current Status

As of October 13, 2026, Sweat is serving the two-game ban and is eligible to be reinstated for Chicago’s November 2 game at Seattle. The NFL has not identified the substance, no appeal has been reported, and Sweat has not commented. The Bears, tied with the Packers and Lions in the NFC North behind the 5-0 Vikings, play the Falcons on Sunday with their defense — not their offense — suddenly missing its centerpiece.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The suspension is the first discipline of Sweat’s seven-season career and it hits both sides of his ledger: a $98 million contract’s third year now carries a PED ruling, and his streak of near-perfect availability — one missed game in four seasons — is over for the least flattering reason. For a Bears defense built around his edge presence, the two games are a live audition of life without him; for Sweat, the return date against Seattle begins the task of rebuilding a reputation that a PED finding, even without a disclosed substance, attaches permanently to a Pro Bowl resume.

Sources

NY Post, “Montez Sweat hit with two-game PED suspension in brutal Bears blow,” Oct 13, 2026 — source
CBS Sports, “Bears’ Montez Sweat suspended for violating NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy,” Oct 13, 2026 — source
Yahoo Sports, “NFL suspends Bears DE Montez Sweat 2 games for violating the league’s PED policy,” Oct 13, 2026 — source