Sunday morning it was reported that the Jacksonville Jaguars agreed to trade Yannick Ngakoue to the Minnesota Vikings. The deal is one that will send a 2021 second-round pick and a 2022 conditional fifth-round that could be a fourth-rounder if he becomes a Pro Bowler. If he becomes a Pro Bowler and the Vikings win the Super Bowl, the conditional pick will become a third-round.
However, with the Vikings only having $12,542,222 in available cap space per Over the Cap, Ngakoue has agreed to play on a one-year deal for $12 million, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. With his franchise tender set at $17.8 million that’s a decrease of about $6 million.
So in other words, it wasn’t about the money as Ngakoue stated this offseason and he really wanted to get out of Jacksonville.
Source: The Vikings and DE Yannick Ngakoue agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal. So Ngakoue will take nearly $6 million less to play in Minnesota than he would've taken in Jacksonville.
So … He really wanted out.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 30, 2020
Ngakoue’s saga with the Jags began last summer where the team failed to give him what he felt was an acceptable long-term deal. That said, he played on the last year of his rookie deal in 2019.
Afterward, he announced that he no longer wanted a long-term deal from the Jags back in early March of this year due to how things were handle previously. Still, the Jags franchise tagged the fifth-year player, which further discouraged him and led to Ngakoue demanding Jags front office member Tony Khan to trade him. Of course, that didn’t happen and the Jags let both the draft and franchise tag trade deadline pass without moving him, which caused the compensation to diminish.
Now, here we are two weeks away from the season and finally the Jags decided to pull the trigger after he got new representation, which seemingly helped the situation. While the Jags didn’t quite get what many were hoping for, the good thing is they can now move on with a distraction free environment and focus on Week 1 as the Indianapolis Colts will be coming into town.