LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Yannick Ngakoue has everyone around the Bears' organization excited. Safety Jaquan Brisker immediately texted Eddie Jackson when news of the signing broke last Thursday.
Ngakoue immediately gives the Bears' pass rush a reliable veteran with a history of consistently pressuring the quarterback. The Bears believe the addition of Ngakoue will help their rebuilt secondary thrive. There's also belief that Ngakoue's impact can be greater than pressures, hurries, and sacks.
After taking a few days to pack up things at home, Ngakoue arrived at Halas Hall on Tuesday to start his ramp-up period.
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Rookie Gervon Dexter has been itching to get in the ear of a pass-rusher whose cross-chop is famous around the NFL.
"I'm ready to go back and pick his brain right now," Dexter said Tuesday after practice. "He is a great guy. Even coming to the room, he introduced himself. You can tell he's a great leader. He's a great guy as well. He has all the tools, so I'm definitely super eager to go in there and pick his brain."
While Ngakoue didn't participate in team drills Tuesday, he spent a lot of time talking to Justin Jones, Rasheem Green, Terrell Lewis, and other edge rushers when they were on the sidelines.
Ngkaoue should make everyone better. But allowing Dexter and fellow rookie Zacch Pickens to observe how he works and pick his brain for at least a year can potentially have long-term ramifications.
Expect Dexter and Pickens to be hounding Ngakoue in meetings, film sessions, and on the practice field.
Both the young defensive tackles have shown impressive growth early in their NFL careers, but Ngakoue's arrival could wind up being a vital accelerant.
The Bears also believe adding Ngakoue will help accelerate the development of second-year left tackle Braxton Jones and rookie right tackle Darnell Wright.
Even before Ngakoue arrived, the Bears started giving Jones and Wright different looks in individual drills. Facing Ngakoue provides the Bears' young tackles with an elite edge rusher to measure themselves against.
“I think it’s just going against a different skill set," head coach Matt Eberflus said about Ngakoue's impact on Jones and Wright. "We started to mix that up again today. We had guys going with the same guy every single time in 1-on-1 pass rush. During our meeting we evaluated each player yesterday in our meeting with the scouts, we talked about what matchups we want to see, so we kind of switched them up, mixed that up today, and that was better and we’re going to continue to do that. But adding that piece to it is the same thing; you’re going to be able to see a different skill set and a different guy rushing them.”
CHICAGO BEARS
Ngakoue's potential impact on the younger members of the Bears' roster is important. But it's secondary to what they hope he provides on the field to a defense that struggled to breathe on opposing quarterbacks last season.
The Bears were already confident about their defense this season. They have seen growth from Brisker and second-year cornerback Kyler Gordon. The additions of linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards give them one of the best linebacking corps in football.
They needed an impactful edge rusher. Now, one has arrived.
"It's just getting scarier and scarier," Jackson said after the Bears signed Ngakoue. "You know, you're just adding more talent and more talent. When that starts to mesh together it's, I mean, everyone in here, has seen what's going to happen. When you've got a lot of large group of talented players and people that's actually locked in and really love football, that's just more fuel to the fire. We feel like, 'OK we just keep taking it up a notch.' Now we done added him. It's like, 'oh man, it's up,' like this thing is headed in the right direction."
Yannick Ngakoue's value to the Bears starts with rushing the passer. But the Bears hope he can be much more than that. If he can meet their expectations, his impact will wind up being much greater than the number of sacks on Sunday.