On Wednesday, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus announced defensive end Yannick Ngakoue will miss the rest of the season after breaking his ankle during the team's win over the Detroit Lions in Week 14.
Now that Ngakoue is done for the season, he's missing out on the trademark stat line he's held since entering the league. Since Ngakoue entered the league in 2016, he's recorded a minimum of eight sacks each season.
Here are his season sacks each season since entering the league:
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- 2016, Jacksonville Jaguars: 8.0 sacks
- 2017, Jacksonville Jaguars: 12.0 sacks
- 2018, Jacksonville Jaguars: 9.5 sacks
- 2019, Jacksonville Jaguars: 8.0 sacks
- 2020, Minnesota Vikings/Baltimore Ravens: 8.0 sacks
- 2021, Las Vegas Raiders: 10.0 sacks
- 2022, Indianapolis Colts: 9.5 sacks
This season, Ngakoue has just 4.0 sacks, leaving him short of an unfathomable stretch of consistency on the defensive line. He would've needed to average one sack in each of the final four games of the Bears schedule to regain the mark.
Without Ngakoue on the line, the Bears will have to lean on their reserves to assist Montez Sweat on the opposite end. That means more snaps for DeMarcus Walker, Zacch Pickens and Gervon Dexter Jr.
"Everybody’s going to have an uptick in reps because of the loss of Yannick," Eberflus said. "It’s important for those guys to lean into the opportunity and have vision for the opportunity and vision for the plays you’re gonna make. This is what the walkthrough practice today is about. It’s about guys visualizing themselves in the gameplan, making plays in the game today and then moving forward, making the corrections and moving onto the next day."
