NEWSLETTER
Obsessive Yannick Ngakoue Watch is officially in the books. And for the Chicago Bears, it ends with Ngakoue set to join the team. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport and his ESPN counterpart Adam Schefter are reporting the news independent of each other. As is 670 The Score’s Chris Emma, whose reporting on Ngakoue’s interest in signing with the Bears last week made this possibility look a lot more realistic than we might’ve otherwise thought:
So … why Yannick Ngakoue? We talked through it last month:
Why Yannick Ngakoue? Well, mostly because he checks a lot of boxes that the Bears tend to look for in free agents during GM Ryan Poles’ time running the show. Plays a premium position? Check. Will be 30 or younger going into the season? Double check. Ngakoue just turned 28 back in March. Has a track record of success? Triple check. Ngakoue was a Pro Bowler in 2017 and is coming off a 9.5-sack season. Moreover, Ngakoue is averaging 8.9 sacks per year since the start of 2019. In other words, Ngakoue has been good *AND* consistent in recent years. This makes him an ideal target for these Bears, who could use a veteran presence who can still bring down the quarterback.
Yannick Ngakoue has been hanging around on the free-agent market for a while. There was even a time when it didn’t look like signing with the Bears would be an option because he came out in June and said he was hoping to sign with a Super Bowl contender. And even with all their improvements, Chicago’s football team didn’t look like they’d be on that tier. Heck, things had gotten so quiet on the Ngakoue front that there were reports of the Bears showing interest in another free agent pass-rusher, Justin Houston. But here we are in August with Ngakoue signing shortly after reportedly showing interest in the team. What an arc! Does that make Matt Eberflus’ team a contender? Uh, well, it certainly gets them closer to that goal.
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Ngakoue, 28, has 65 sacks in 110 career games with the Jaguars, Ravens, Colts, Raiders, and Vikings. Schefty has it as a one-year deal worth $10 million. It isn’t the multi-year deal he might’ve been looking for, but a $10 million pillow contract that gets him back into the market could be a win-win for both sides. If Ngakoue plays well, he’ll better position himself for a bigger payday next offseason. And if he plays well, the Bears defense will almost certainly be better.
UPDATE (8:52 PM CT): Yannick has tweeted:
OK, are we still calling them tweets? X’s? Xeets? Whatever it is, Ngakoue’s emoji usage tells us where he’s going. And I’m glad it is the Bear emoji and not a cheese block emoji, lion emoji, or something else.
