The Bears’ defense could plunge right back into its old problems if they can’t pivot in the pass rush after defensive end Yannick Ngakoue’s season-ending injury.
Ngakoue didn’t fix the pass rush deficiency the way general manager Ryan Poles had hoped when he shelled out $10.5 million for him on a one-year deal in training camp. That answer came a couple months later with the trade for Montez Sweat. But Sweat’s arrival sparked Ngakoue, and now that he’s out, they’ll need help from elsewhere.
As the highest paid player on the team, Sweat has to lead the way as the Bears host the Cardinals on Sunday. He has been better than advertised and had 2 ½ sacks against the Browns, but the Bears didn’t get any other sacks unless they blitzed.
Coach Matt Eberflus is a minimalist blitzer, and that’s not the best way to deal with multi-talented Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray anyway. The Bears need to pressure him with four linemen and manage his mobility.
The Cardinals have allowed 38 sacks, 10th-most, and Murray has been sacked 14 times in five games coming off a torn ACL.
The Bears’ pass rush was concerning since the day Poles took the job, and it got a lot worse before it started getting better. He unloaded likely Hall of Famer Khalil Mack two months into his tenure and dealt Robert Quinn, the franchise’s single-season sack record holder, to the Eagles later that year.
He finally started adding when he signed veteran DeMarcus Walker for $21 million over three years and splurged for Ngakoue, and that still wasn’t enough.
It became increasingly worrisome that Poles had undercut progress he’d made elsewhere, like stocking the secondary to the point where it’s one of the most talented in the NFL, by coming up short in the pass rush. The first five quarterbacks the Bears faced, including Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield and Sam Howell, posted a passer rating of 99 or higher.
Sweat was a game-changer, but he can’t do it alone. The solution has to come from a combination of Eberflus’ creativity — without some of the errors that cost him against the Browns when he brought pressure — and someone else stepping up as a running mate.
Logically, the Bears should look for answers where they’ve invested resources. That means their best shot is for Walker to step up. He carries one of the top 10 salary-cap hits on the team.
Walker was in on a sack on Browns quarterback Joe Flacco with blitzing linebacker T.J. Edwards, and that pushed his total to two for the season. He earned his Bears contract, which nearly more than tripled his previous annual pay, by piling up a career-high seven sacks for the Titans last season.
Poles invested serious draft capital in rookie defensive tackles Gervon Dexter (second round) and Zacch Pickens (third), and he and Eberflus touted the idea of those two creating a pass rush by “denting the pocket,” but that’s still theoretical.
The Bears also drafted Dominique Robinson in the fifth round last year and have worked hard to develop him, but they aren’t getting tangible results there, either. He had 1 ½ sacks in his NFL debut, but just ½ since. He was a healthy scratch for six games before reemerging against the Browns for 19 snaps off the bench.
Poles and Eberflus hoped they’d found something in free agent Rasheem Green, who had 17 sacks over his first five seasons, and played him 23 snaps in Cleveland, but he has just two sacks in 14 games.
The Bears certainly are better with Sweat spearheading the attack on opposing quarterbacks, but otherwise don’t appear to be in much better position than they were last season, when safety Jaquan Brisker led them with four sacks. If it’s only Sweat, they’re still going to encounter many of the same snags that hurt them before he arrived.