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| Yannick Ngakoue has demanded a trade from the Jacksonville Jaguars after the team placed the franchise-tag on him |
by Justin Krauss
Yannick Ngakoue, try saying that name out loud and I guarantee each time it will come out completely different. To save you the trouble I’ll spell it out for you [yan-ick En-gah-kway]. While the average NFL fan not from Jacksonville may not know this guy, Ngakoue is a 25-year-old MONSTER at defensive end. In his first 4 years, he’s contributed 37.5 sacks and 14 forced fumbles. The former 3rd round pick (pick 69 I must add) out of Maryland has not had less than 8 sacks in any of his first 4 seasons. Typically, this kind of production warrants a big-money contract, but the Jaguars in typical Jaguars fashion have managed to screw it up. Ngakoue has demanded a trade from the Jacksonville Jaguars, taking to Twitter to publically display his disgust for the Jaguars organization.
I mean, there are only a select few organizations that are dysfunctional enough to pull something like this off. You’ve got a guy at 25 years old who’s undeniably skilled at his position, in a state with no income tax and you still can’t convince him to sign long term. The Jags have refused to break the bank on their star defensive end, and it seems to be an apparent theme since their AFC championship run back in 2017. The AFC-best defense that carried them to the AFC Championship with Blake Bortles, at QB; has been blown up with not one of their core guys remaining on the squad. The Jags got rid of arguably the best cornerback in the NFL with Jalen Ramsey, the All-Decade DE Calais Campbell, star cornerback AJ Bouye, and stud defensive tackle, Malik Jackson, just 2 years after their best playoff run in recent history. Ngakoue is just another example of how the Jacksonville Jaguars mishandle star players and remain at the bottom of the NFL standings.
More Ngakoue tweets:
Where Will he be Traded?
At this point, the Jaguars have been taking calls from multiple teams looking to put together a trade, with the asking price being set at the minimum of a first-round pick. Seeing that Yannick has more than openly stated that there is nothing in this world that could make him want to don the teal and gold again, I doubt that they will get what they are asking for. Then again we live in a world where one of the league's best wide receivers was traded for a box of pop tarts and an average running back with one of the worst contracts in the league. So I will refrain from saying it’s impossible. But among the teams interested are two NFC East squads. One in the pass-rush needy New York Giants and another in the non-dysfunctional Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles GM Howie Roseman has been known to make a splash with trades and no one salivates more when it comes to the defensive line than Howie, so it's not surprising that the Eagles are in the mix. But the real team to look at would be the Giants; with a young core on offense and money to spend, Ngakoue seems like a perfect fit for the Giants.
Hopefully this whole thing doesn't get any worse and everyone gets what they are looking for. Ngakoue is more than deserving of the contract he is seeking and surely there will be a line of teams ready to pull the trigger on a trade in the near future, probably sooner than later.
Stay safe during this time and stay home so we can have football in September.
Krauss
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