Draft day was greeted with multiple reports that the Raiders are trying to work out a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue in a trade.
The first reports suggested the Jaguars wanted the 12th overall pick and the Raiders were unwilling to part with that. What they would be willing to surrender is unclear at this time. Vic Tafur of The Athletic echoed the report that the Raiders are showing interest, but according to him, no compensation has been discussed yet and a deal is not imminent.
The #Raiders are kicking the tires on trading for pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue, but they and the #Jaguars are not close. Don’t believe it’s gotten to a back and forth on compensation (yet).
He’d have to sign a tender first, but Raiders could free cap space quickly. Will monitor.— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) April 23, 2020
The Jaguars placed the franchise tag on Ngakoue and the 25-year-old is not happy about it. He wants to be traded and went as far as to go after the owner’s son on twitter recently in order to force the team’s hand, telling Tony Khan to “stop hiding” which led to a back a public back and forth with Ngakoue saying Khan was “spoiled” and using the clown emoji.
Since your feeling might today let’s both let the world in on the truth. We been had a discussion that the chargers game was my last game. Yet you try to back door the situation without answering any of my camps calls. Smh you spoiled bra.. holding up people for no reason 🤡
— Yannick Ngakoue (@YannickNgakoue) April 20, 2020
Just trade me . I don’t need the speech 🏁
— Yannick Ngakoue (@YannickNgakoue) April 20, 2020
If nothing else, it was not a good look by Ngakoue, who no doubt got some advice to do a little damage control, leading to a tweet promising his new team he’d bring discipline, integrity, and work ethic.
To my new future team whomever it may be. I can’t wait to bring great discipline, integrity, and work ethic to that new city. Wherever I may land your going to get the hardest working defensive end in the league !🏁
— Yannick Ngakoue (@YannickNgakoue) April 20, 2020
Should Ngakoue sign his franchise tender, he would be set to make $17.9 million this season, but he is after a long term deal that would figure to pay him over $20 million per season.
Whether he is worth that kind of money is debatable. He’s had just one season with double-digit sacks and that was in 2017 (12.5). But he has been fairly consistent, putting up 37.5 sacks over four seasons. And he’s still just 25 years of age.
The Raiders have little to no cap room when you factor in what it will take to sign their rookie class, and they already restructured Rodney Hudson’s deal in order to free up space. Adding a player with a $17-$20 million cap hit would mean some serious reworking.
Derek Carr and Trent Brown currently represent the biggest cap hits on the team at $21.5 million each, so that’s where you’d figure they would look first. Gabe Jackson is also making $9.6 million with no dead money should he be released or traded.
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