CHICAGO – This weekend the football community will celebrate National Tight Ends Day.

Here are six points for the Chicago Bears returning from their bye week against the Washington Commanders.

Welcome back (to Washington), Montez Sweat

Sweat knows Landover, Maryland well.

The former first-round pick from Mississippi State was a commander for the first five years of his career before being acquired by the Bears for a second-round pick midway through the 2023 season.

He led the Bears in sacks in just nine games. When he returned to Washington to play against his former team, Sweat thought about the trade.

“I think like any other player, they would be a little offended, but it's a business and I understand what comes with it,” Sweat said. “I was offended, but I didn’t take it personally.”

Sweat and teammate Chase Young were dealt to the Bears and San Francisco, respectively, at the deadline.

Sweat is now one of the faces of the Bears defense and is in line for a massive contract extension. Given all this, Sweat has completely distanced himself from the Commanders. However, when he needs motivation, she is there for him.

“I want to do damage every week,” Sweat said. “Maybe this week might be a little motivation, but it’s just another week.”

A win will bring the Bears back to their 2018 spirit

A win over Jacksonville gave the Bears their first three-game winning streak since the 2020 season.

With a win over Washington, the Bears turn the clock back to 2018. That was the last time the Bears won four games in a row.

That year, of course, the Bears won the NFC North with a win over Green Bay and advanced to the playoffs. They lost in the NFC Wild Card round and there's no need to remind Bears fans what happened in that game.

Still, winning the NFC North is a challenge this year as the Vikings, Packers and Lions all have five wins. A win over Washington also gives the Bears a win over a team with a winning record, which would put the Bears in position to compete with the rest of the NFC North.

“Completes were good and the work on the field was really good too,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said. “I know the boys are excited about this competition. We haven’t played in a while, so I know the guys are excited to play these guys in Washington.”

The Bears aren't worried about their run defense. You're right not to be

The Bears' run defense has been questionable for five weeks. Against Jacksonville, the run defense stepped up, giving defensive coordinator Eric Washington some confidence when asked about the run defense.

“I will answer that by just referring to our last performance. We had a two-headed monster in London against Jacksonville,” Washington said. “I think they ran 68 yards. You can put that down to the way the game went or the tenacity of the guys and the determination they had to make sure that wasn’t an option for them.”

Despite this performance against the Jaguars, the Bears are allowing an average of 4.6 yards per carry. Things don't get any easier against Washington.

Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler lead the field among commanders. Washington expressed confidence in a group that has figured it out.

“I expect our guys to take that same mentality and carry it over this week,” Washington said. “There are a lot of variables in an explosive run. There are running fit variables, there are gap control variables. These are some of those things.”

The Jaguars' shutdown may have put them in the same predicament Bears wide receiver DJ Moore mentioned earlier. The group only has to experience everything happening once and then everything falls into place.

They saw it come together in London. The coaches are confident they will continue.

“There's a lot of determination in this room to make sure we get that particular part of our defense into the top five, like we're doing with some of the others,” Washington said.

Kliff Kingsbury and the “Caleb Williams Effect”

The Bears may have had a coaching change after they no longer had Kliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator.

Before Shane Waldron became available after Pete Carroll and the Seahawks mutually agreed to his retirement, Kingsbury interviewed with the Bears. That made sense considering he had experience with Williams and mobile quarterbacks.

Kingsbury spent the 2023 football season as a senior offensive analyst at USC. He compared Williams to a quarterback he coached when he was the head coach at Texas Tech.

“Obviously Lincoln had tremendous success with Caleb, so that was already a given and my deal there was to really help out in any way I could,” Kingsbury told reporters this week. “I think it was just the competitive nature that he showed. I mean, he wanted the ball in his hands in the biggest moments and almost made a mistake at times, just passing up, maybe on a simple check-down, and then saying, “Hey, I can make a bigger play.” , or I’m going to go out and do this,” because he’s such a big competitor. And it reminded me of the guy I had at Texas Tech because it's kind of the same thing. He did that early in his career.”

That guy was, of course, Patrick Mahomes.

That answer came in part from a response to a question about how Williams' coaching at USC helps him coach fellow rookie Jayden Daniels. Kingsbury mentioned that it comes down to finding out what drives the players.

“I think you take something from every person along the way,” Kingsbury said. “You find different things and try to figure out how they work and what they do best and then try to move things forward in that direction and focus the offense around that.”

National Tight End Day: Let's remember some of the Bears' TEs

Williams and Bears' tight end Cole Kmet become fast friends. Against the Jaguars, Williams and Kmet scored two touchdowns, proving that the connection between the two is invaluable to the Bears.

“If the quarterback has a lot of confidence in a tight end, a guy who can work edges and win one-on-ones and is also a friendly target in zone coverage – then he's had some good opportunities and he's maximized those opportunities,” Waldron said Thursday.

But that was two Sundays ago. This Sunday is a holiday.

It's National Tight End Day. Christmas greetings for Kmet, Marcedes Lewis and Gerald Everett. On this occasion, let's remember some of the Bears' tight ends:

Mike Dikta

I don't have to explain this. Iron Mike ran over the boys before leading the Bears to their only Super Bowl victory as a head coach. With 34 scores, he holds the record for most touchdowns by a Bears tight end.

Greg Olsen

Olsen was arguably the best tight end talent the Bears ever had. He became All-Pro in Carolina and was so good that former Bears GM Jerry Angelo publicly expressed regret about trading Olsen in 2011.

Matt Spaeth

The longtime Pittsburgh Steeler joined the Bears for two seasons in 2011 and 2012 when the man signed after Olsen's departure. Spaeth was the last Bears player to wear number 89 before the Bears retired Ditka's old number in 2013.

Kellen Davis

Davis played for the Bears for five years, scoring 11 touchdowns in 80 games. He also guaranteed that the Bears would beat Green Bay in the 2011 NFC Championship game. Tight end, that's him; He is not a fortune teller. Davis won a Super Bowl with Seattle in 2013.

Desmond Clark

An extremely reliable pass catcher and blocker for the Bears in the 2000s. From 2003 to 2010, he caught 18 touchdowns and was a security blanket for the Bears' many quarterbacks during that span: from Jonathan Quinn to Jay Cutler.

Can Kmet be the best Bears TE of all time?

At this point, Kmet needs to be a bear for life if he wants to earn that title.

Kmet has accumulated 2,407 receiving yards and 18 receiving touchdowns. That's 2,100 yards and 16 touchdowns behind Dikta, which is within reach given the Bears' quarterback situation and Kmet's contract situation. His contract extension ties him to the Bears until 2027.

If Williams continues his progress and Kmet stays healthy – there is no indication he will disappear from the Bears' target rotation – those records should fall when Kmet leaves the Bears.

That's a good thing for the Arlington Heights native and St. Viator native (which I'm reluctant to say as a Carmel High School graduate), who has become one of the steadiest voices on the Bears' roster.