Yannick Ngakoue wants out of Jacksonville, and a recent report says the Las Vegas Raiders would like to acquire him. That same report says the Jaguars’ asking price for the pass rusher is holding up a potential deal. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk says a source has told him the Jaguars “want too much,” but there is still hope in the Raiders camp that a deal can get done before, or during, the NFL Draft, which starts on Thursday night.
Charlie Campbell of Walterfootball was among the first to report on talks between the Raiders and Jaguars in regard to Ngakoue. The Raiders have two first-round picks in the draft and have offered the 19th overall selection in exchange for the defensive end.
The Jaguars, in turn, are asking for the 12th overall pick. Sources are saying the Raiders don’t believe the Jags can do better than a top 20 selection because the player has painted the team into a corner.
Florio pointed out the Raiders got an up-close and personal look at Ngakoue in the teams’ regular-season finale. The defender sacked Raiders quarterback David Carr twice.
The analyst also said there’s a chance a compromise deal could be reached. Such a deal might mean the Raiders would ship the 19th pick and a later round pick in this year’s draft, or a pick in 2021.
Before any trade can happen, Ngakoue needs to sign his franchise tender. The one year deal would then ideally get an extension once the Raiders control his rights. If an extension can’t be worked out after the supposed trade, the Raiders would owe him $17.78 million in 2020 and could then franchise tag him again in 2021 and pay him a 20 percent bump in salary to just over $21 million per year.
Should the trade get done, it would essentially be a Khalil Mack-for-Ngakoue trade. The Raiders have the extra draft pick because they shipped Mack off to the Chicago Bears last offseason. Reports surrounding that deal were that the front office didn’t want to pay his contract.
Things have apparently changed a bit since the team moved from Oakland to Las Vegas. As Florio points out, if there’s one thing that is illustrated by the trade talks, it’s that Raiders owner Mark Davis isn’t scared off by a bit of back and forth with Ngakoue. Earlier this week, the Jaguars defender got into a bit of a spat with Jags co-owner Tony Khan on Twitter.