The New York Jets haven’t had a strong edge rusher since John Abraham. General manager Joe Douglas is looking to change that.
According to Benjamin Allbright of Pro Football Network, the New York Jets are one of three teams interested in trading for Yannick Ngakoue. The Jacksonville Jaguars stud pass rusher is also drawing interest from the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
Ngakoue is one of the elite edge rushers in the NFL. He’s recorded at least eight sacks in every year of his career. He’s also racked up at least 13 tackles for loss in each of the last two seasons.
He’s coming off arguably the worst season of his career though. Ngakoue put up a career-low number of pressures and his missed tackle percentage was around 20%. Despite those numbers, he was still an above-average edge rusher.
The Jets are desperate for help at that position. Right now, their starters are Tarell Basham and Kyle Phillips. That’s nowhere near where Joe Douglas wants to be. Adding Ngakoue would be a great way to fill one of those spots.
The issue is that the potential move doesn’t meld with Douglas. The general manager has been very careful with his spending and paying top dollar for an edge rusher coming off his worst season doesn’t make sense. Not to mention, the Jets would have to give up an incredible amount of draft capital.
According to Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network, the cost is steep. He reported that the Seahawks were asked to give up their second-round pick and swap their first-round pick with the Jaguars’ second.
That’s an incredibly high price especially since a team would have to pay Ngakoue. The Jags just franchise tagged the 24-year-old last week. None of that sounds like a move Douglas would make considering how conservative he’s been in his first full offseason.
A Ngakoue deal is possible, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense from the Jets’ point of view.
