WARE, England – The Los Angeles Rams lined up on first down from their 20-yard line having assigned a tight end to Montez Sweat.

The Bears star edge rusher surveyed the alignment, feeling a mix of anticipation and anger while preparing for the snap.

Sweat felt “disrespected” that the Rams would think a tight end could take him. He also knew this was a matchup to be exploited.

Sweat exploded off the ball, whipped past his blocker and strip sacked Matthew Stafford. Kyler Gordon recovered the fumble, and the offense scored a touchdown four plays later to take a lead the Bears would not relinquish.

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Those opportunities are increasingly rare, even as the Bears pass rush gets contributions from its entire rotation on the interior and off the edge. Steady pressure generation from Gervon Dexter Sr. and Darrell Taylor haven’t forced opponents to play Sweat straight up, either.

“I definitely feel the attention, the slides and the chips, the plays going in the opposite direction from time to time,” Sweat said during an interview at Hanbury Manor, where the Bears are preparing for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “But it is what it is.”

Such is life as a marked man. That comes with the territory for top-tier veterans like Sweat, with a reputation for dominance and the massive contract that comes with it.

“He gets a little frustrated with it sometimes because they’re always chipping and banging and doing all those things,” head coach Matt Eberflus said, “but he’s gonna fight through it and we’re gonna set him up  (well), too.

Frustration, it seems, has turned to motivation. That’s why he has started watching others, looking for ways to create havoc and beat the schematic attempts to take him out of a game.

“I embrace it,” Sweat said. “As of late, I’ve tried to watch the greats, like the TJ Watts and Myles Garretts, those types of players, to see how they approach offensive game plans when they’re devotedly positioned to take them out of the game. I’m still building upon that, to be able to deal with that type of attention. I feel like there are different tiers of attention that you can get, so, yeah. I’m still working on that.”

It’s clear that Sweat is doing a deep dive. He was incredibly detailed about his research on Garrett and Watt and how they beat extra attention.

Sweat on Garrett: “He’s a guy who switches sides. He kind of creates his own one-on-ones sometimes and it seems like he knows when he’s going to get those one-on-ones, too. Seeing how he approaches his chips, whether it’s a blind chip or a tight chip from a back, the types of rushes and angles he takes on a tackle sometimes, is something I’ve thought about.”

Sweat on Watt: “When he gets off of chips, he usually calls like a game or something like that, a twist game where he builds up field. By that time the tackle has already over-setted him for his speed, and then going back inside and running his (twist) game with his D-tackle. He shortens his angle as he’s going towards the (quarterback). He kind of doesn’t go up field because he knows he’s going to get bumped up field, so he kind of goes more at the tackle off the chip, to where he basically knows he’s going to wind up at the quarterback’s face after he’s done defeating his blocks.”

Sweat won’t simply try to copy and paste what they do. He’s looking for techniques and strategies that would fit his game best, within the context of what the Bears like to do. That’s an important aspect of all this, because Sweat knows he’s not an island off the left edge.

“It just has to complement you game and the guys around you,” Sweat said. “Sometimes I can switch sides, but maybe a guy feels more comfortable on one side and I may be better on the other side or something. It always has to complement the player beside you as well.”

The attention Sweat draws makes life easier on others up front. That, and development along the line has lead to increased production rushing the passer. We’ve seen the entire rotation get involved in the effort, something Sweat appreciates as the leader of the group.

He’s invested in that role, actively teaching young ends and working to lift the entire line up. He took the line out to dinner on their Tuesday night off in London, which is not the first time he has treated the position group this season. He’s active in meetings and freely gives technical advice to young edge rushers hoping to build a career like his.

Sweat is going to be in Chicago for a while and wants to see this team and its defensive line flourish during this tenure.

“I’ve learned that chemistry within a room and a team is very important,” Sweat said. ”It’s one thing to have your own type of mindset and approach to the game, but, when everybody’s on the same page and you care about the man beside you just as much as he does, everything just kind of goes into a flow.”