Bears Have an Edge
The Bears have their edge rusher, at a steep price.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter through agent Drew Rosenhaus, Yannick Ngakoue has signed a one-year deal with the Bears for $10.5 million, all but half a million guaranteed.
Ngakoue is a 6-foot-2, 245-pound edge rusher who has been an effective pass rusher throughout his seven-year career, never failing to get at least eight sacks. The Bears have no one on their roster who has had more than seven sacks in a season.
Ngakoue has played for six teams now, all six within the last five seasons. The reason he has bounced around the league has been a perceived lack of interest in defending against the run, but the Bears wouldn't necessarily be bringing him on to defend the run. He'd be a sack specialist. They already have two free agent acquisitions at defensive end who have been more stout against the run, in DeMarcus Walker and Rasheem Green, although Walker has been missing practice time and no explanation has been forthcoming from the team.
Ngakoue played last year for the Indianapolis Colts and had 9 1/2 sacks. His career-high was 12 sacks with Jacksonville in2 017. He was a Jaguars third-round draft pick in 2016.
At 28 years old, Ngakoue is younger than almost all the edge rushers who were available and someone who could be a target for a longer-term contract if his production remains high. Or with a one-year deal, he could be the player who leaves again as the Bears draft an edge rusher.
This is the route Ngakoue has taken with the Colts in 2022, the Raiders in 2021 and then with Baltimore in 2020. He was signed by Minnesota in 2020 when his original contract expired with the Jaguars and had five sacks in six games for the Vikings before being traded before the trade deadline to the Ravens. He then had three more sacks in the final nine games and left for the Raiders in 2021 as a free agent, where he had 10 sacks in a full 17 starts.
Ngakoue had six forced fumbles in 2017 when he had his career-high 12 sacks, and has 65 career sacks, 21 forced fumbles and 135 quarterback hits for 110 games.
The Bears last year had only 6 1/2 sacks from defensive ends and 10 1/2 from their defensive line. They were led in sacks by safety Jaquan Brisker with four, and finished last in the NFL with 20 sacks.
This signing indicates they might have seen enough of second-year defensive end Dominique Robinson to realize he hasn't progressed far enough in his second year to be a big pass rush asset. He had 1 1/2 sacks in the opener last year and none after that. Or it could indicate they want to trade defensive end Trevis Gipson.
There are plans to move Walker inside to tackle in pass rush situations, so this could make it so they would keep five defensive ends on the roster.
Ngakoue has played both in 3-4 and 4-3 schemes and was productive in both, his 12 sacks and 10 sacks both coming with defenses using 4-3 base schemes. In 2021 he played for the Raiders in a 4-3 coordinated by Gus Bradley.
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