Yannick Ngakoue trade demands are huge for Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans
By Will Lomas
Oh, Jaguars…
Sometimes teams just can’t get out of their way, habitually making bad decisions at critical moments and ultimately failing to maximize their potential.
A great example of this is the Jacksonville Jaguars transitioning from 2017 to 2018.
Coming off of a 10-6 season which saw Jacksonville make it to the AFC Championship Game, the Jaguars looked like they were settled to be a dominant defense for a long time.
All Jacksonville had to do was to make sure they had enough money to make deals with young impact players like Jalen Ramsey, Dante Fowler and Yannick Ngakoue while finding ways to secure veterans like Calais Campbell and Telvin Smith who made that defense what it was.
Instead, they spent the next two years handing out bad deals to Andrew Norwell, Nick Foles and Myles Jack, while whiffing on draft picks like Taven Bryan over Lamar Jackson.
The lack of optimism over new deals and general frustration led to Jalen Ramsey being traded while A.J. Bouye, Calais Campbell, Malik Jackson, Marcell Dareus, Barry Church, and Dante Fowler were all traded or released because of bad cap management.
Another important event that showed why Jacksonville doesn’t know how to value things correctly came when Telvin Smith decided he needed a year off and instead of showing compassion to the star of that defense, the Jaguars started fining him instead.
They spent two years writing the guide on how to turn a strength into a weakness while alienating their best talent and trading away players for pennies on the dollar.
So, with that context it is easy to see why Yannick Ngakoue would want out and why the Jaguars are probably not savvy enough to figure out a way to convince him to stay.