Training camp is supposed to be the fun part. Instead, the Bears kicked things off with a gut-punch: Montez Sweat, the guy they traded a second-round pick for and then paid like a premier edge rusher, landed on the Active/Non-Football Illness list before the first practice of 2026 camp even wrapped.
Adam Schefter broke the news that Sweat is on the non-football illness list, with safety Elijah Hicks also sidelined on PUP.
Bears placed DL Montez Sweat on the Active/Non-Football Illness and DB Elijah Hicks on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform.
The non-football illness designation is vague by design, but it's not a shrug-it-off label. Players on that list can't practice until they're activated, and the Bears now have to figure out how to build their defensive front without their $98 million investment on the field for at least the opening stretch of camp.
That $98 million number isn't a typo. Sweat signed a 4-year extension worth up to $98 million in new money back in November 2023, months after Chicago flipped a second-round pick to Washington to get him, part of the trade package that also netted them the draft capital used to take Caleb Williams. He's been the anchor of a defensive line that's supposed to take a real step forward in 2026, and missing camp reps is never how you want that story to start.
Elijah Hicks landing on PUP is a smaller story but still a subtraction. The seventh-round pick turned core special-teamer re-signed on a one-year deal to stick around as safety depth and a coverage-unit fixture, and now he's watching from the sideline too while the rest of the roster gets valuable early camp reps.
None of this is a season-altering crisis on its own, players get activated off these lists all the time once camp settles in. But for a Bears defense that needs continuity up front and on special teams heading into a pivotal year with Ben Johnson calling the shots on offense, every missed rep for Sweat is a rep the pass rush isn't building chemistry. Worth watching how quickly Chicago gets him back on the field before real conclusions get drawn.