Yannick Ngakoue Finds New Home
Former Indianapolis Colts edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue is signing a one-year contract with the Chicago Bears according to Ian Rapoport.
"The Bears are signing former Colts star pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue to a 1-year, $10.5M deal, sources say, giving them a weapon off the edge they’ve been seeking," Rapoport reported on Twitter. "Ngakoue has never played for Matt Eberflus, but he’s played in his system before. It should be seamless."
Ngakoue played just one season with the Colts, but he led the team in sacks last year with 9.5.
He's a bit of an enigma. He's one of just five players in NFL history to record eight or more sacks in his first seven seasons. The other four players are Reggie White, Aaron Donald, Derrick Thomas, and DeMarcus Ware.
Ware joined Thomas and White in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, and Donald will likely be a first-ballot inductee.
However, Ngakoue is still just 28-years old but is on his sixth team in five seasons. His new deal barely cracks the top-30 in edge rushers according to Spotrac.
Ngakoue is a pass-rush specialist. Pencil him in for eight sacks with the Bears, but his limitations in other phases of the game have made him expendable at all of his previous stops... including Indianapolis.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave Ngakoue a 43.7 run-defense grade in 2022. That put him 108th out of 119 edge rushers, but to be fair, he was ahead of fellow Bears Trevis Gipson (39.7) and Dominque Robinson (39.5). So on paper at least, Ngakoue is actually an upgrade against the run for the Bears.
The Colts elected not to bring Ngakoue back when they signed Samson Ebukam as a free agent from the San Francisco 49ers.
Ebukam earned a 57.4 grade from PFF against the run and posted five sacks on 559 snaps in 2022 (Ngakoue played 732 snaps).
