Timing Key for Yannick Ngakoue Signing

Everywhere Bears GM Ryan Poles turned, he was reminded about the need to sign an edge rusher.

"If it was at my son's baseball game, people yelling from the field, coaches at third base yelling to me, or literally on the beach in Maui, I was reminded that I need to sign a defensive end," Poles said.

He didn't need the reminder. He saw it every day at training camp.

The Bears pass defense has been high energy, swarming and playing a group of improved receivers as tight as possible. Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards shut off the shorter passing game. The Bears defense has made it apparent to Poles they would benefit now from getting a $10.5 million edge rusher like Yannick Ngakoue.

Of course, the timing and money available had to be right, too.

"Again, there's a level of patience that you've gotta have to be a sound decision-maker and make sound decisions," Poles said. "Again, it comes back to that. That's probably the biggest lesson of the last two years—patience and letting things happen. There's times we're gonna hit the gas and sometimes you wanna hit the brake. But this one we wanna be patient and make sure both sides are comfortable with what was going on.

"I would say both things are true because it's been really cool to see our front and our secondary making a lot of plays, having energy, making plays on the ball. You really see that thing coming together. And this is gonna enhance it."

Secondary Has Proven Worth of Help

The chippy play over the last four practices on the part of the defense continued heading into Sunday's Soldier Field practice. Eddie Jackson and Chase Claypool got a bit overheated on Saturday. Earlier in the week it was Velus Jones Jr. taking a swing at pretty much the full Bears secondary and some subs as they surrounded him like a pack of hyenas.

It's not just chippy play, but they're making plays on the ball even as DJ Moore, Claypool, Darnell Mooney and Tyler Scott have won their share of battles to get the ball.

"I think the balance of being able to get home and also have a good secondary, you want to be able to shorten that time to get the ball out, you want your secondary–which I see right now–being really good in coverage, which is going to buy the guys up front time to get home," Poles said. "That was an emphasis that Flus (coach Matt Eberflus) and I had, was to get more pressure on the quarterback and create turnovers."

If you'll remember, back in the early spring the explanation for going after DeMarcus Walker and Rasheen Green was to be more stout against the run, which definitely was needed for a team 31st against the run last year. But they were last in pass rush and the response about their lack of edge rusher was the interior players would bring heat and the edge wouldn't be as essential.

Well, no one can tell for certain but it doesn't appear an Aaron Donald is coming out of the sky to grace the Bears with his presence. Their defensive tackles are either veterans who haven't been elite, like Justin Jones, or rookies like Gervon Dexter Jr. and Zacch Pickens. They have talent, show promise but aren't polished enough yet to scare an opposing quarterback into running out of the pocket too early to throw.

Getting an end to complement that swarming, heckling, hooting and crowing secondary made all the sense now, if it really didn't earlier anyway. After all, the secondary was pretty good last year before injuries, combined with lack of a pass rush, took them down. They were third in the league against the pass following their win over New England, the last victory attained by the franchise. Then the 10-game losing streak started against Dallas and they were still fifth against the pass heading into the final nine games, still a respectable ninth following the loss to Atlanta in Week 11.

Then came the injury to Eddie Jackson, the injuries to Jaylon Johnson and Kindle Vildor. Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon were out briefly with concussions.

There really was no reason to think they couldn't be as effective stopping the pass if they only provided a pass rusher or two. But they hadn't.

Improved Secondary Obvious

Then practices provided a reminder of how good their secondary could be. Jaquan Brisker, in particular, seems to have made a step up.

"Oh man, it's crazy man," Eddie Jackson said of Brisker. "He's so talented and I feel like right now he's light years ahead. He's going around, he's flying around and he's bringing energy and he's making the plays. He's doing everything you want him to do and as a young guy at that.

"So he's having a great camp so far. We're going to continue to build off this thing and like I said, man, head in a different direction. A different direction."

Even the newest addition seems to have righted his ship after faltering a bit. That's Tyrique Stevenson, the second-round pick who is being challenged by fifth-round rookie Terell Smith.

"You know, he is stepping up to the plate," Jackson said. "He's buying in. You know coach (Jon) Hoke is tough on him, but at first he was a little shied away, but now he is locked in. You know he knows it's just tough coaching. It's all love. Just his mindset.

"Like he wants to go out there. He wants to ball and that is another high-energy guy. You know a young guy, he is making plays. You see him fired up."

With all of that, it would have bordered on negligence to let a pass rusher like Ngakoue sign somewhere else even if he isn't much of a run defender.

Even with that, Poles couldn't rush right into a signing.

"You got to talk back and forth to make sure that years and compensation make sense," he said. "That's where the level of patience comes from."

It did, and now the Bears have a more complete look to the defense.

Saying it and crowing in the faces of their own receivers in practice is one thing, doing it against opponents live is where it must actually happen before anyone can be certain it's working.

The Bears paid a $70 million contract for Robert Quinn and got only 2 1/2 years and one good season out of him. If they can get a good season out of Ngakoue with their secondary displaying improvement, who knows, Poles could be working on a contract extension for their new defensive end in the future and that's something Ngakoue has wanted for a long time as he bounced from team to team each year like a hired gunslinger.

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