This past offseason was supposed to be a huge offseason for Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Poles. Poles admittedly cleaned up the salary cap in his first year as GM to make sure the team was in great standing to start to put this team together in the 2023 off-season. At 1-5, it is clear that something went wrong.
Which signings that Ryan Poles made have hurt them the worst so far?
3. The Chicago Bears are not getting their money's worth for Yannick Ngakoue
This was always the fear with Yannick Ngakoue. He was a feast or famine player who could get sacks when his team had the lead and when he had others around him helping out, but he was not known as a consistent threat, and he was unsigned late into the summer for a reason. Every reason has come up this year for the Chicago Bears.
So far, Yannick Ngakoue ranks 31st in pressures. Among 82 qualified rushers, he ranks 76th in win rate and 66th in pass rush production, per PFF. This is as bad as he has been. Last year, he had a 7.1% win rate, and the year before, it was 10.7%. This year his win rate is down to 4.7%.
His pass rush productivity is down from 6.6 in 2021 and 6.9 in 2022 to 5.2 this year. On top of being a letdown in the pass-rushing department, he is the same in the run-defense area, but this was expected. Still, when he is not doing the thing he is supposed to do and struggling in the other areas, it feels so much worse.
The Bears' best bet right now would be to trade Ngaokoue. He is going to leave after this year anyway, and they will get nothing for him. His name value could get something from a team that needs pass-rush help at this point in the season.
2. Tremaine Edmunds has been a letdown for the Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears decided to make Tremaine Edmunds the high-priced free agent of their offseason. Many thought that Ryan Poles, with his lineman background, would use assets to spend on the line because both sides needed it. The deal was also surprising after Poles and Matt Eberflus just traded off Roquan Smith.
The thought was that Eberflus was a good linebackers coach and could turn someone like Jack Sanborn into a quality starter who is not far off of Edmunds for a fraction of the cost. However, it appears Eberflus wanted specific linebackers, and Poles liked Edmunds, so they went and signed him. So far, he has been the biggest disappointment of the year for the Bears.
Every once in a while, he makes a play, but he is not impacting the game in key areas. His coverage is lacking, and he is looking slow to process. With guys like T.J. Edwards, it took some time, but he is adjusting to the defense. Even Justin Fields has had bounce-back games in this disaster year. Edmunds is swimming uphill right now and cannot seem to find stable ground.
Will he ever become comfortable in this system, or is this what the Chicago Bears signed up for?
1. The first season of Nate Davis with the Chicago Bears is slipping away
A lot of this is out of his control, but this year has been a disaster for Nate Davis. The talk all offseason was that Davis was the big signing, Darnell Wright was the big draft pick, and the two would create a tough right side for years to come. It happened for a game or so, and they looked good together against a tough Washington front. The rest has been a letdown.
Davis missed a lot of the preseason dealing with a personal matter. He started week one but was clearly rusty and got beat too often. He sat out weeks two and three to deal with his personal manners and came back in week four. He was fine in week four but was still adjusting. Week five will be all that the Chicago Bears are holding onto right now.
He finally had a game to get the rust off, and then we saw why the team signed him, as the Bears scored 40 points with sound protection. In week six, Davis got hurt after ten snaps. So, weeks one and four were adjusting, week six was injury, weeks two and three, he was out; that leaves us with one good week to look back on.
Davis is supposed to only miss three or four games, but it will be week 11 of his first year with a new team, and he will have so many question marks when it comes to what he can bring to this team.