Yannick Ngakoue to be franchise tagged by Jaguars

After stating his desire to move away form the team, Yannick Ngakoue is going to be franchise tagged by Jacksonville.

Pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue came out publicly Monday morning and stated his desire to move on from the Jacksonville Jaguars following four stellar years with the team. Reports came out last week stating that the pending free-agent was potentially looking for an average of $22 million per year, which would make him the highest-paid defensive end in the league.

The Jaguars were unable to satisfy the 24 year-old’s expectations and as a result, Ngakoue is unsurprisingly ready to move on from the team. Almost simultaneously alongside Ngakoue’s announcement, Adam Schefter of ESPN announced that the Jaguars are set to franchise tag Ngakoue with the following tweet:

The announcement from Ngakoue doesn’t come as much of a surprise given his recent social media activity. Over the weekend, he teased the announcement for Monday and swiftly crushed the hopes of one Jaguars fan, who responded with “pls tell me you’re staying in Jacksonville” only to be put down by an emphatic response.

Having made his intentions clear, there seems to be little chance that Ngakoue actually reports back on the tag. Therefore the Jaguars might use their premier talent as trade bait to acquire even more picks in the upcoming NFL Draft. There’s been some recent precedent for similar moves amongst teams across the league, as Dee Ford, Super Bowl winner Frank Clark, and Jadeveon Clowney were all subject to similar fates just last year.

Ngakoue won’t have the luxury of going through the free-agency process and hearing pitches from teams, but there will be a number of teams eager to trade for a player with 37.5 sacks in four seasons. Whilst this isn’t the clean break he perhaps wanted, Ngakoue’s mind appears to be set on playing elsewhere — or not playing at all.