5 Chicago Bears starters who won’t be back in 2024

2. The Chicago Bears will not re-sign Yannick Ngakoue

Yannick Ngakoue had not played for the last three games, and he has a bad ankle now that requires season-ending surgery. To be honest, the Chicago Bears were not going to bring Ngakoue back, even before his injury. Ngakoue was in the midst of the worst year of his career. 

He had four sacks, with his career-low before this game being eight. He was not going to make that up in the final games, either. Ngakoue had a 4.8% pass rush win rate this year, which was down from 7.1% last year and 10.7% the year before. 

Most of his sacks came in clean-up duty because Montez Sweat was making so much noise. He was not excelling with Sweat. The Chicago Bears started to reduce his snaps and play DeMarcus Walker on his side more in the two weeks prior to his injury. The Bears will add more edge rusher help, but they will not be bringing back Yannick Ngakoue.