Yannick Ngakoue has had the interest of the Chicago Bears since he filed for free agency. But the 28-year-old veteran initially didn’t seem excited to join a defense that was the NFL’s worst in 2022 and the Bears weren’t willing to lock themselves in on an eight-figure, multi-year contract.

The sides came together on a compromise agreement on Thursday night. Ngakoue agreed to a one-year, $10.5 million deal with the Bears, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Ngakoue, who has had at least eight sacks in all seven seasons of his career, becomes the fifth highest paid Bear, behind only D.J. Moore, Eddie Jackson, Tremaine Edmunds and Cody Whitehair. He should be a significant upgrade as a defensive end/edge rusher. He will join Trevis Gipson and DeMarcus Walker in that mix, at least until the trade deadline.

He’s moved a lot lately — the Bears are his fifth team in four years — and could be an an attractive chip at the deadline for General Manager Ryan Poles. That’s a discussion for another day, however, as the immediate hope is that the Bears can compete for a postseason spot one season after going 3-14.

That will depend on improvement both from Justin Fields and the offensive players around him as well as a defense that allowed 30.2 points per game during a season-ending 10-game losing streak.

Ngakoue becomes the sixth newcomer who will be penciled into a starting spot, joining linebackers Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and linemen Andrew Billings and Walker. Linemen Gervon Dexter Sr. and Zaach Pickens aren't far away from joining Stevenson as rookies running with the first team defense.

Ngakoue’s teams have gone to the postseason three times, including the last two years. He had 9.5 sacks for Indianapolis last year, which was three more than all of the Bears’ defensive ends combined. The Bears finished with an NFL-low 20 sacks but concentrated their off-season improvement on the defensive interior and secondary.

They signed the 28-year-old Walker to a three-year, $21 million contract after he delivered a career-high seven sacks for Tennessee but did not draft draft an edge rusher. Walker, Gipson and possibly Rasheem Green, who was signed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal as a free agent, are likely to share time on the end of the line.

Ngakoue should hit the ground running in camp. He played for defensive line coach Travis Smith with Las Vegas in 2021.

Ngakoue played under a franchise tag with Jacksonville in 2020 but hasn’t been trusted with a deal longer than two years since his rookie contract. That’s in part because he is considered sub-par against the run. Pro Football Focus ranked him among the top 38 edge rushers for four consecutive seasons (2017-20) but his grades have plummeted the last two years. He was ranked 108th of 119 qualifiers last season.

The Bears had an NFL-high $27.8 million in cap space before agreeing to the deal with Ngakoue. They have been spending carefully in anticipation of extending Fields’ contract after the season, assuming he shows improvement as a passer after rushing for 1143 yards and eight touchdowns last season.

Fields was sacked 55 times. The Bears know they have to protect him while getting to opposing quarterbacks more often. Ngakoue will be expected to play a key role in the second part of that equation.