Yannick Ngakoue made plenty of offseason noise in order to receive his freedom from the Jaguars in August, and after a quiet start in his new home, he's again on the move.
The Minnesota Vikings are trading Ngakoue to the Baltimore Ravens, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported. Minnesota will receive a 2021 third-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2022, per Pelissero.
The Vikings sent a 2021 second-round pick and a 2022 conditional fifth-rounder to the Jaguars for the then-disgruntled Ngakoue less than two weeks before the start of the season. Just six games into that same season, Minnesota has pulled the plug on Ngakoue, shipping him east to Baltimore where he'll join his former fellow Jaguars teammate Calais Campbell.
Ngakoue recorded five sacks in six games in Minnesota but registered a quarterback pressure percentage of just 8.3, a rate that lands around the likes of defensive ends Dante Fowler Jr. and Justin Houston in 2020. Playing on a one-year, $12 million deal that was essentially an experiment to see if it would be worth pursuing a long-term agreement, Ngakoue apparently didn't produce adequate results for the Vikings to consider keeping him.
The pairing with Baltimore is potentially a match made in edge-rushing heaven for Ngakoue, who reunites with Campbell after playing part of his first season without him. Campbell has been slightly more effective than Ngakoue, posting a pressure rate of 9.5 percent and also recording a disruption rate of over 11 percent (Ngakoue's disruption rate landed at 8.9 percent). Anything over 11 percent tends to illustrate a defensive lineman making a consistent impact, which Campbell has managed to do in his age-34 season.
When together, Campbell and Ngakoue are at their best -- especially Ngakoue, who became a turnover-causing machine in Jacksonville while playing on the same defensive front as Campbell. In 2018, Ngakoue finished with a QB pressure rate of 12.9 percent and 61 total disruptions (good for a rate of 14.3 percent). He was even better in 2017, posting a QB pressure rate of 14.7 percent and a disruption rate of 16.4 percent. In that season, Campbell finished with a QB pressure rate of 12.9 percent and 61 total disruptions. The two combined to force nine fumbles.
Baltimore is aiming to recreate such a monster with its acquisition, which is relatively low-risk and costs them even less than what Minnesota had to give up to get Ngakoue. Might this be Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta's latest savvy move? We'll see, but it's clear the Ravens know the time to strike is now.
