Getty General manager Ryan Poles of the Chicago Bears.
The Chicago Bears have given their fans much to be excited about over the offseason, though a revamped pass rush is not one of them.
Chicago was the worst pass-rushing defense in the NFL in 2022 with 20 total sacks, and despite increasing that total by 50% to 30 sacks last year, the Bears still ranked 31st out of 32 teams in the crucial statistical category.
As such, Joe Tansey of Bleacher Report on Monday, August 5, listed former Pro Bowler and former Bear Yannick Ngakoue as one of three free agents Chicago “must target” in the roughly one month before the regular season begins.
“They will try to give Austin Booker as much time to impress in preseason as possible, but if the fifth-round pick is not ready, the Bears could look to some veteran pass-rushing help to play opposite [Montez] Sweat,” Tansey wrote. “Ngakoue produced [6] tackles for loss and [4] sacks in a Chicago uniform last season. That similar level of production would be welcome in 2024.”
Yannick Ngakoue Had Worst Year of Career With Bears in 2023
GettyDefensive end Yannick Ngakoue #91, formerly of the Chicago Bears.
Ngakoue inked a one-year deal worth 10.5 million to join the Bears on August 4 of last year, a considerably late signing, and would sign on the dotted line even later this time around should a deal come to fruition.
The money, however, probably would not be the same. Ngakoue, 29, is a year older and coming off of the worst campaign of his eight-year career. He produced only 4 sacks across 13 games played. Ngakoue tallied 8 sacks or more in all seven of the seasons that came before.
Part of last year’s outcome is owed to a broken ankle he suffered late in the season, which cost him four contests. In May, however, Ngakoue posted a video on social media of himself executing agility drills complete with a caption that read, “What ankle?”
Thus, it would appear Ngakoue has returned to good health, but an injury and a subpar year doing the one thing he has always done well — getting to the quarterback — is going to drive his price down. Beyond that, the fact that the defensive end is still available indicates that his price and/or length of contract demands have not been met in any of the league’s other 31 cities, affording Chicago the lion’s share of the negotiating leverage, despite its weakness at the position.
Bears Austin Booker Not Likely Ready to Fill Yannick Ngakoue Role in Rookie Season
GettyDefensive end Austin Booker of the Chicago Bears.
The biggest reason for Chicago’s bump from 20 sacks two seasons ago to 30 sacks last year was the acquisition of Sweat from the Washington Commanders ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.
That move cost the Bears a second-round pick in this year’s draft, though it paid off as Sweat tallied 6 sacks for Chicago in just nine games (13 sacks total) on the way to the first Pro Bowl selection of his career.
But if the team doesn’t pursue another pure pass rusher like Ngakoue in free agency, the job — or at least a significant portion of it — could fall to Booker, the fifth-round rookie out of Kansas. Booker put up 8 sacks and 12 tackles for loss during his final collegiate season, but there was a reason he fell as far as he did. Mainly, it was because most evaluators still describe his skill set as raw and unrefined.
“Whichever team drafts Booker will have to be patient with him, as he’ll probably only be a situational pass rusher for a year or two,” Bleacher Report’s Scouting Department wrote in April.
On the team’s second unofficial depth chart of the preseason, which it released Monday ahead of a matchup with the Buffalo Bills on August 10, Chicago lists Booker as a third-string defensive end. Asking him to fill anything close to the starting role Ngakoue held last year is expecting perhaps too much from a talented rookie project.
The Bears currently have $12.2 million in salary cap space, so the easiest and safest move is probably to use somewhere in the ballpark of half of that on Ngakoue for a year and keep the pressure off of Booker during his first NFL campaign
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