With star pass rusher off trade market, Bears could turn to reunion with former Pro Bowler

The Bears missed out on trading for star edge rusher Matthew Judon during his contract dispute with the New England Patriots. Judon instead ended up in Atlanta and the Patriots said no to their offer of one third-round pick.

Yannick Ngakoue has bounced around since being drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of Maryland. He has been solid off the edge in his career so far, but struggled last year and eventually had his season cut short due to a broken ankle in Week 14.

He had a career-low four sacks and finished with an awful 39.9 PFF grade as an edge rusher.

However, it was not all bad as Jacob Infante pointed out at Windy City Gridiron , in the games he overlapped with Montez Sweat, his film improved, even if it was just for a brief time. Defenses had to account for more than one solid pass-rusher, and that freed him up to go one-on-one much more and it played to his strengths.

He obviously knows Matt Eberflus and what defense he wants to run. On top of that, he’s a familiar face in the locker room and can provide much-needed experienced voice for a young team.

He also had impressive production every year prior to 2023, so there is evidence that this could be a one-off and not a sign of things to come.

The Bears shouldn’t bet on Ngakoue returning completely to form by any means, but he could be worth a shot on a similar contract to last year.

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