Jaguars defensive end Yannick Ngakoue skipped minicamp as part of his efforts to land a new contract, and now it appears he will hold out of at least a portion of training camp as well.
A source with knowledge of the situation tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that negotiations between player and team have broken down, and that Ngakoue will likely continue to stay away as a result.
Ngakoue is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and there’s no denying that he is criminally underpaid, given his performance. For now, he’s slated to earn just $2.025MM in 2019 after racking up 29.5 sacks across three seasons.
The Jaguars would, presumably, love to lock down the Maryland product for years to come. However, the continued explosion of the edge rushing market makes this an extremely costly proposition for Jacksonville. The Maryland product, who just turned 24 in March, is undoubtedly looking to meet or exceed the five-year, ~$105MM deals that fellow pass rushers Demarcus Lawrence and Frank Clark signed this year, both of which came with over $60MM in guarantees.
Ngakoue does have to report to camp by August 6 to earn an accrued season towards free agency, so he may choose to not hold out beyond that date.
So the Jags philosophy is to over pay QB’s and ostracize their stud D players. And they wonder why I won’t even look at ticket prices. Morons.