5 stats Chicago Bears fans must know about Yannick Ngakoue signing
4. How Yannick Ngakoue compares to similar salaries
The Chicago Bears signed Yannick Ngakoue to a $10.5M deal, and most of it sounds to be guaranteed. So, how does that stack up against some other edge rushers? Sam Hubbard is making an average of $10M per year, Carl Lawson is at $9M, and Za'Darius Smith is at $11.7M. They are the three closest to Ngakoue in salary. Below is how the four compare to each other. We just used stats since 2019 so that the sample is more recent. For Carl Lawson, we took stats since 2018 because he missed all of the 2021 season.
Name | Tackles | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | FF | Passes defended | Approximate Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sam Hubbard | 260 | 24.5 | 63 | 38 | 4 | 12 | 30 |
Carl Lawson | 98 | 18.5 | 86 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 17 |
Yannick Ngakoue | 121 | 35.5 | 65 | 36 | 11 | 10 | 25 |
Za'Darius Smith | 152 | 36 | 84 | 44 | 6 | 7 | 35 |
However you break it down, Ngakoue can stack up this peers. He is a bit ligher on the tackles, but more than Lawson. He is right behind Smith in sacks. The quarterbacks hits is a bit light, but he is right next to Hubbard in both hits, and tackles for loss.
Then, there are the forced fumbles, which is where Ngakoue soars above the rest. His lack of tackles, and questionable run defense can show up when you see his approximate value, but still, he is right there in the mix.
You could make the case the Hubbard brings more down-to-down production to the table, but Ngakoue does bring the added forced fumbles that he does not. Still, Hubbard is at $10M, and signed his deal a few years ago, so with the rising cap it is only right to have Ngakoue making just a little bit more than that.