Since his firing on Wednesday (and even earlier in the week), a lot has surfaced about the way Tom Coughlin ran things in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ front office and fans have been rightfully sounding off. Unfortunately, some of the standout players that he’s angered the most are no longer with the team, which is exactly why fans should be glad that defensive end Yannick Ngakoue lasted through Coughlin’s tenure.
One of the biggest topics of the season was Yannick Ngakoue’s contract situation. In July, there was a report that surfaced stating the Jags shot him a short-term offer worth $19 million per year. However, thanks to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, we now have some info on how the negotiation process went down.
In a nutshell, it wasn’t pretty.
Just before training camp last summer, Coughlin declared that the Jags had made their final and best offer to pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue. The problem? It was late July, and negotiations were still in the early stages, having only started earlier that month. And the comments sufficiently angered Ngakoue, who was planning on reporting to training camp, to the point where he launched a training camp holdout instead. And this was a player that the team wanted to sign.
Back in May, Ngakoue told the media he wouldn’t holdout for organized team activities or any offseason events afterward, but ended up doing so anyway. We now know he had a more than valid reason to do so based on Breer’s report.
As most are aware, it takes a little time to iron out a deal like the one Ngakoue has/had earned at the time. That said, there feels like there was a lack of effort on the Jags’ end when reading these statements. Meanwhile, it seems as though they had no problems putting together long-term deals for players brought in from other organizations like quarterback Nick Foles and guard Andrew Norwell. That’s not a good look by any means.
It also makes sense that the details behind the short-term deal in which was shot Ngakoue’s way would “leak.” With Coughlin out of the picture, however, fans should feel a little more comfortable about Ngakoue’s chances to stay.