NY Jets miss out on opportunity to trade for Yannick Ngakoue

The NY Jets have missed out on their opportunity to trade for star pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue.

The NY Jets‘ pursuit of Yannick Ngakoue ended on Sunday when the star pass-rusher was traded to the Minnesota Vikings after months of contract disputes with his now-former team.

And while it remains unclear just how serious the team’s interest in him was, there certainly were plenty of rumors about a possible Jets/Ngakoue pairing.

Rumors swirled throughout the offseason that the Jets were one of the teams monitoring Ngakoue’s situation and that they had checked in on a possible trade. But that seemed to be it for a while.

That was until reports emerged a little under two weeks ago that the Jets were “deeply involved” in trade talks with the Jacksonville Jaguars and that a deal was expected sooner rather than later.

Well, less than two weeks later a trade did happen. But the Jets weren’t the team on the receiving end of the former Pro Bowl pass-rusher.

And with that, the Jets have officially missed out on landing a talented pass-rusher once again. But realistically, it was never a move that was likely to happen.

It was never realistic for the NY Jets to trade for Yannick Ngakoue.

Trading for Ngakoue always seemed to be an anti-Joe-Douglas move. A player with character concerns whose situation closely resembled Jamal Adams‘ never seemed like someone who would be high on Douglas’ list of priorities.

Not to mention the fact that the Jets would have to give up draft capital for a player they would soon have to sign to a hefty long-term extension.

That’s not to say that the Jets shouldn’t have pulled the trigger, but it did seem to be unlikely even once the rumors picked up steam.

Ngakoue would have provided a massive boost to a Jets defense that had just lost its two best players in Jamal Adams and C.J. Mosley. Especially given the barren state of the team’s pass rush, Ngakoue would have undoubtedly been a major addition.

But Douglas seems to place a greater emphasis on run defense as opposed to pass rush. Combine that with the other external factors at play and it was never realistic to expect a trade for Ngakoue.

Now, the rumors have been put to bed. Ngakoue is no longer a trade option and we could all move on.

It certainly was a fun couple of days, though.