The Jacksonville Jaguars and Yannick Ngakoue look to have an ugly situation on their hands that could boil over soon.
The Jaguars placed the franchise tag on Ngakoue earlier this offseason, but according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, he still has no plans on signing it. Ngakoue would like the Jaguars to trade him to another team where he could sign a long-term deal.
A franchise tag situation to watch approaching July 15: Jaguars DE Yannick Ngakoue. I’m told nothing has changed with his stance – he still desires a trade – and doesn’t have immediate plans to sign the tag. This could bleed well into training camp, absent deal with a new team.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 1, 2020
The deadline to sign Ngakoue to a long term deal is July 15 or he will have to play the 2020 season under the franchise tag if he does end up signing it or else sit out. In April after the draft, Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell had said no deal could be made with another team because no trade was even offered (via John Reid of Jacksonville.com):
″I think his options are very limited at this point … We will welcome him back with open arms when he’s ready to come back, and we will look forward to it.″
Ngakoue got into a Twitter argument a few days before the draft with Tony Khan, the Jaguars’ senior vice president of football administration and technology. Ngakoue told Khan to “stop hiding.” Ngakoue then tweeted that he had a conversation with Khan that his time with the Jaguars is over and Khan was holding up the process for no reason.
It's still unclear at this point if the Jaguars have had any trade offers for Ngakoue, but at this point, it appears that might be the only way this stalemate will end.
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