Maurice Jones-Drew shoots his take on Jags’ handling of Yannick Ngakoue

Jaguars great Maurice Jones-Drew says he’s heard from Yannick Ngakoue this week and had some takes on the Jags’ handling of him.

With the Super Bowl coming up, radio row has provided some quality takes for Jacksonville Jaguars fans, whether it’s from current or retired players. Former running back Maurice Jones-Drew was one of many to share his thoughts with Jacksonville’s ESPN 690AM sports station, elaborating on a wide variety of topics including Yannick Ngakoue’s contract situation.

Jones-Drew, who once dealt with a contract situation early in Shad Khan’s tenure as owner, too, stated that he felt the Jags have basically mismanaged the situation by not taking care of Ngakoue earlier.

“That [deal] should have been taken care of a long time ago,” Jones-Drew said. “Take care of it early. My parents always told me, ‘You’re gonna pay. Either you’re gonna pay now or you’re gonna pay later, but you’re gonna pay.’”

Jones-Drew’s comments echo the sentiments we’ve stressed (and many others) during the 2019 season. When reflecting on last season, the mis-step that hurt the Jags in particular was the option to pay Nick Foles, something that was ill advised because of his limited success and injury history. Lo and behold, Foles ended up suffering an unfortunate injury and the team were stuck with a $12 million cap hit for someone who only took the field for 185 snaps.

Jones-Drew added that he spoke with Ngakoue this week and stated that he didn’t want to put his full personal conversation out there but did hint at there being a communication problem.

“We did have a conversation though, yesterday, and I think the biggest thing is communication,” Jones-Drew told Brent Martineau of ESPN 690. “Don’t play the game in the media. That’s kind of where [my contract situation] went a little bit, and I refused to do that because to me we’re talking about business.

“That doesn’t need to be going in the media,” Jones-Drew added. “It needs to be face-to-face. We need to sit down and have a conversation, I can tell you how I feel, you can tell me how you feel, and we can move on. Either we agree or we don’t or we agree to disagree — it is what it is.”

After the season Jags general manager Dave Caldwell stated that he and Doug Marrone think highly of Ngakoue and wanted to make signing him the team’s top priority. He later added that he felt the deal could take some time but was one that could be done “relatively easily” and that ownership could also get involved. Khan also said he met with players after the season, and one would think Ngakoue should’ve been atop the list.

However, based on Jones-Drew comments, it appears Ngakoue and his camp possibly haven’t heard anything from the Jags. His recent social media post insinuates the same, though it’s not completely clear.

Caldwell said the team would start making decisions on veteran contracts closer to March, which will give fans an idea of what they are working with in terms of cap space. In the meantime, it appears they need to establish a better means of communication with Ngakoue (at least in his eyes) as it appears to be a divide between both parties.