SAD REPORT : CHICAGO BEARS key player suffers a carrier ending injury……….

Bears Contend with Losing Yannick Ngakoue for the Season

Edge Rush Help Needed by Bears
Bears defensive end Yannick Ngakoue suffered a broken ankle requiring surgery and will finish the year on injured reserve.

The Bears have their first season-ending injury to a starter and it’s a blow to their newly developed pass rush.

Defensive end Yannick Ngakoue is out for the year with a broken ankle suffered late in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Lions. The injury required surgery.

“Very late,” Eberflus said of when the injury occurred. “I don’t know the exact play. It was one of our last two-minute drives on defense.”

Asked how they’d compensate, Eberflus responded, “Blitz every snap.”

At least he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.

All hands on deck will be the approach at this stage of the season after losing a player they paid $10.5 million to on a one-year free agent contract.

“Everybody just step up, step into their roles and lean into it,” Eberflus said.

Ngakoue leads the team in sacks with four, although Montez Sweat’s 3 1/2 sacks since coming over in a trade for Week 9 have been more impactful.

It might mean second-year defensive end Dominique Robinson is active again for the first time since the Bears played the Raiders on Oct. 22 or more pass rush emphasis from DeMarcus Walker and Rasheem Green. Some of the tackles, like Gervon Dexter or Zacch Pickens, could get more reps at end, even.

“When you have injury, you have an opportunity for people, for Dom, for Walk, for all those guys that are going to be in there, Gervon (Dexter), everybody’s that going to have an uptick in reps because of the loss of Yannick,” Eberflus said. “Pick’s gonna have more reps. It’s important for those guys to learn into the opportunity and have vision for the opportunity and vision for the plays you’re gonna make. This is what the walkthrough practice today is about—it’s about guys visualizing themselves in the game plan, making plays in the game today and then moving forward, making the corrections and moving onto the next day.”

It might mean Robinson is active again Sunday against Cleveland for the first time since the Bears played the Raiders on Oct. 22. He has been a game day inactive since then with no chance really to be active since Sweat arrived via trade.

“That’s really a great opportunity for some other guys,” Eberflus said. “You know, and we’ve been rotating a lot of guys in there as you (media) know and for me it’s about finding that best combination.

“And really it’s about the matchups. When you look at the skill set of the offensive line that we’re playing this week and how we can match up best against those guys and who that is going against who. So that’s important.”

The tackles the Bears edge rushers will face Sunday are both backups, as the Browns lost both starting tackles to injured reserve. Dawand Jones and Jedrick Wills Jr. were the starting tackles who went on IR. Geron Christian and James Hudson III are now their starting tackles.

Ngakoue had never finished with less than eight sacks in a season until now but Eberflus thought the opportunities had been there for him to hit his normal numbers.

“I think that (numbers) were good and could have been better, you know, because he missed some,” Eberflus said. “There was a lot of times he had them in the shoe there and could have got him down.

“We’ve just got to do a good job of finishing and wrapping up the quarterback, strip-sacking as you come through. I think he could have had at least three or four more, at least.”

Walker has been lining up on the outside almost all year, so it probably doesn’t impact how he’s used much, but it could mean more reps. According to Pro Football Focus, he has lined up at tackle position only 68 tims among his 530 plays. Walker has 1 1/2 sacks but none the last six games.

“D-Walk has been a pro all the way through,” Eberflus said. “He’s always been enthusiastic. He’s always energized or team when he’s out on the practice field.

“He had some injuries in training camp. So he was injured a little bit during that time and really he’s getting back to full strength now and he’s gotten some good production out there with the way he rushes. He’s done a good job as of late.”

The Bears had undrafted rookie edge rusher Jalen Harris on the practice squad earlier this year but the son of former Bears linebacker Sean Harris, was signed off of the practice squad by Washington in mid-November.

They also have veterans Khalid Kareem, Michael Dwumfour and Daniel Hardy on the practice squad. Kareem, a former Colts player, had been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury and after being activated was waived and put onto the practice squad. He had a pass deflection in one game. With Cincinnati in 2020 he had a sack. He has been in 28 NFL games.

Dwumfour has been in 12 NFL games with Houston and San Francisco and has half a sack. Hardy was in six games for the Rams last year without a sack.

BY GENE CHAMBERLAIN
BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Bears full time for various publications, news services and websites over 30 years, including several years collaborating on weekly NFL/Bears columns with Mike Ditka and Walter Payton for the Copley Newspaper Chain