The Bears Must Find 49 Sacks to Be a Threat: Here's Why

For all the fanfare and accolades that the Chicago Bears' defense accrued post-Montez Sweat trade, there's still a glaring need for an edge rusher opposite the new cornerstone of the defense.

Last season, the Bears accumulated 30 sacks. That total ranked next-to-last in the NFL, ahead of only the hapless Carolina Panthers and their 27 sacks.

Furthermore, the Bears will need to replace the 10.5 sacks registered by players no longer on the team. Justin Jones, who accounted for 4.5 of these sacks, parlayed his two-season stint in Chicago into a healthy deal with the Arizona Cardinals.

But why do sacks matter? After all, didn't former defensive coordinator Greg Blache infamously state that sacks don't matter? Well, despite what the former Dick Jauron coordinator might think, sacks accumulated by a team tend to correlate to postseason success. Of the past 10 Super Bowl winners, here's where they rank as teams from a sack stance:

• 2023 Kansas City Chiefs: 2nd
• 2022 Kansas City Chiefs: 2nd
• 2021 Los Angeles Rams: 3rd
• 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 5th
• 2019 Kansas City Chiefs: 20th
• 2018 New England Patriots: 8th
• 2017 Philadelphia Eagles: 10th
• 2016 New England Patriots: 17th
• 2015 Denver Broncos: 1st
• 2014 New England Patriots: 15th

Of those 10 winners, only three were outside the top 10 when it came to registering sacks as a team, and those three teams had arguably the two greatest quarterbacks of all time in Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. Half of the teams were in the top five, so we can all agree that getting to the quarterback and finishing is essential.

To get into the top 10 last season, the Bears would've needed to get 49 sacks (to beat the 10th-ranked Buccaneers' 48 sacks). That's 19 more than they accumulated as a team.

Bears' Baseline

Right now, the Bears can pencil in around 12 sacks from Montez Sweat. He had six last season with the Bears and 6.5 with the Commanders. It's worth noting that those 12.5 sacks were 3.5 more than his previous season-high, but Sweat is a player entering his prime and proved last season with the Bears that he wasn't a byproduct of the players around him in Washington but a force unto himself.

Twelve down, 37 to go. As it stands, between Andrew Billings, DeMarcus Walker, Zacch Pickens, and Dominique Robinson, you can pencil in another 10 sacks . Last season, this foursome accounted for only seven total sacks. However, Sweat proved last year that his ability to be the focal point for opposing offenses opened up opportunities for those around him, and expecting three more sacks out of the rotational players shouldn't be too much of an ask.

The Bears still need 27 sacks to break into the top 10, and one player whose growth could become integral to the team's success is second-round pick Gervon Dexter Sr. Dexter had a promising, if underrated, rookie season for the Bears. His 11.9 pass-rush win percentage was third among rookie interior defensive linemen and trailed only Jalen Carter and Kobie Turner. Furthermore, Dexter's development stacked with each game, and the 2.5 sacks he registered last season all came in the last month of the season as he continued to get acclimated to the speed of the NFL and Matt Eberflus's scheme.

As the Bears' 3-tech, Dexter looks to play a prominent role in disrupting opposing teams' passing games, but what does that look like from a statistical standpoint? In Kansas City, Chris Jones has established himself as the premiere 3-tech, and he garnered 10.5 sacks in 16 games for the Chiefs. It's premature to expect double-digit sacks from Dexter, but I think that if he were to get eight sacks in 2024, he would go a long way toward cementing himself as the long-term solution at the 3-tech.

If you're keeping up, I have the Bears matching last year's sack total (30) between Sweat, Dexter, and last year's rotational holdovers. The only player still on the roster with some pass-rushing juice is fifth-round rookie Austin Booker. Booker, whom many (including Dane Brugler) had pegged as a top-100 player, slipped to the fifth round, prompting Bears' general manager Ryan Poles to send a 2025 fourth-round pick to the Bills for their fifth-round pick and the right to draft Booker.

Related: 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Austin Booker

At 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, Booker has the length and athleticism Matt Eberflus covets in his scheme, but his rawness and relative inexperience make him a true project. He's far from a plug-and-play solution opposite Sweat, but he has the tools to make him a Braxton Jones-level surprise in his first season. I predict that the Bears will use him as a pure pass-rusher on third downs, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the young rookie get 5 sacks in limited action.

With 36 sacks on the books and the Bears needing another 13, they'll need to go dumpster diving into what's left of free agency. So put on your gloves and Hazmat suits, it could get messy.

Remaining Free-Agent Pass Rushers

Yannick Ngakoue: PASS

Last season, the Bears' big free-agent splash to shore up the defensive line came amid training camp when the team signed journeyman Yannick Ngakoue to a one-year, $10.5 million deal. After amassing at least eight sacks in each of his first seven seasons, Ngakoue proved ineffective as the premiere pass-rusher on the Bears' defensive line and notched only four in 13 games with the Bears.

Ngakoue remains a feasible option for the Bears, and the former Jaguar is currently rehabilitating from a broken ankle he sustained with the Bears in December of 2023. He'll likely sign another one-year deal, but does he have enough juice to supplement Montez Sweat? I'd pass.

Emmanuel Ogbah: 1-Year, $3.5 Million Deal with Bears

Emmanuel Ogbah was one of the first cap casualties of the 2024 offseason, and he remains an unsigned free agent entering his age-30 season. In Miami, Ogbah saw his snaps decrease each year. However, last season, Pro Football Reference credited him with 5.5 sacks in only 172 pass-rush snaps (278 snaps total), and the Bears will need to find players who can help close the 1,717-snap gap occupied with the departures of Ngakoue, Justin Jones, and Rasheem Greene. Ogbah would be an intriguing Greene replacement. Greene, who played 385 snaps for the Bears in 2023, accounted for two sacks last season.

Ogbah is inconsistent. In 2022, he only accounted for one sack in a season cut short by injury (he only played in nine games).

If I were Ryan Poles, I would offer Ogbah a one-year deal worth around $3.5 million to come in and eat up 300 snaps. I would bank on three sacks from Ogbah as he lines up situationally opposite Sweat.

Calais Campbell: 1-Year, $8 Million Deal with Bears

My other free-agent band-aid would be the ageless wonder, Calais Campbell. Now 37 years old, Campbell last suited up for the Atlanta Falcons in 2023 and played all 17 games while combining for 56 tackles and 6.5 sacks. The $8 million is a slight raise over the deal he signed last season with the Falcons for $7 million. In Chicago, Campbell would serve as an invaluable mentor for a guy like Gervon Dexter Sr., who's still learning the ins and outs of the 3-tech position.

Campbell has the makeup that Poles and Eberflus seek in their veterans. The former Walter Payton Man of the Year is undoubtedly cognitive of where he's at in his career; however, he'd offer the team a replacement for the snaps lost from Justin Jones (Campbell logged 712 snaps last year to Jones' 740) and provide an uptick in production. With the Bears, we can expect another five sacks from Campbell.

Supplementary Sacks

When the dust has settled, the Bears have 43 sacks and need three more to reach the projected 49 they'll need to break the top 10 this year.

Fortunately, there are other positions on the defense aside from the defensive line that can get sacks. Between their linebackers and secondary, the Bears received an additional 6.5 sacks, and by my math, we have now broken the barrier into the top 10.

The Bears still have a lot of work to do along the defensive line before they can be genuine title contenders . Breaking into the top 10 of sacks would be a massive upgrade from last season, but it's still only scratching the surface of contention and competitive longevity. Don't be surprised if Ryan Poles makes another bold move to try to supplement the defensive line and really kickstart the team toward Super Bowl contention.

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