The Chicago Bears are in familiar territory in 2024, with a lingering need for additional pass-rushing depth on their defensive line, and ESPN’s Bill Barnwell predicts a “logical” move for them could be signing former Miami Dolphins starter Emmanuel Ogbah to a low-cost contract for the new season.
Ogbah has 42.5 sacks and 268 total tackles in his eight-year NFL career, including a Super Bowl triumph with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019. He also had back-to-back nine-sack seasons with the Dolphins in 2020 and 2021, earning him a four-year, $65 million contract deal from Miami, with $32 million guaranteed.
Since then, the 30-year-old Ogbah’s star power has waned. He had only one sack in nine games in 2022 before sustaining a season-ending triceps injury. While he rebounded with 5.5 sacks in 2023, the Dolphins chose to release him and cut his contract this offseason to save approximately $13.6 million against the salary limit.
Still, Ogbah might offer value to a Bears defense that already boasts a star in Montez Sweat and is looking for a rotational player rather than an every-down defensive end.
“Those numbers aren’t going to project to All-Pro production over a full workload — Ogbah is probably best spotted in a situational role at this point of his career — but the Bears need bodies in their edge rotation,” Barnwell wrote on the fourteenth of May. “Getting 300 snaps of solid pass-rushing performance from Ogbah for $2 million or so would be a good deal for GM Ryan Poles.”
