As anyone who follows NFL analyst Andrew Brandt on Twitter knows, nothing creates action like deadlines.
Which is why this week is a big one for Yannick Ngakoue, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and most importantly for local fans, the Eagles.
This Wednesday, July 15, is the deadline for players under the franchise tag to reach an agreement on a long-term extension with any team. That is the case even if Ngakoue does not sign the tag, which he has yet to do. If Wednesday comes-and-goes without a new contract reached -- whether it be with the Jaguars or another team -- Ngakoue will play the 2020 season on the franchise tag, locking in his salary of $17.8 million.
That is a big deal. If it does happen, the chances of the Eagles acquiring Ngakoue will take a dramatic hit — meaning a deal likely has to happen before Wednesday if it is going to happen.
Last season, the Eagles had a chance to acquire Jadeveon Clowney from the Houston Texans. One of the reasons the deal didn’t get done was that by acquiring Clowney, they would have had to pay him the franchise-tag salary of $16 million for the 2020 season. They didn’t have an option to reach a new deal with Clowney. The $16 million ate into almost all of their remaining salary cap space they had at the time and killed the chances of a trade.
The $17.8 million the Eagles would have to pay Ngakoue if they traded for him after July 15 would be an even bigger blow to their salary cap picture.
The Eagles currently have around $24 million in salary cap space. Ngakoue on the franchise tag would take up (roughly) 75% of their remaining salary cap for this season. That is a hit the team is almost certainly not willing to take, especially when they need as much as they can to roll over into the 2021 offseason, where they are currently projected to be around $50 million over the salary cap. There is also the uncertainty about what the salary cap could look like in 2021, with potential revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Signing Ngakoue will not be cheap, but if the Eagles are able to trade for him prior to Wednesday, they could at least attempt to structure the contract in a team-friendly way. Ngakoue will likely be looking for a deal in line with the ones that Dallas Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark signed. Both had an average salary of around $20 million. There is no question Ngakoue is worth that money for the Eagles, it is just a matter of fitting it under their cap.
One option would be to give Ngakoue a low-cap hit early on and then have that hit go up in the third year. Clark's cap hit the first year, for example, was just $6.5 million. Structuring a contract won’t be easy, but if anyone can work their way around the salary cap, is is Howie Roseman and Jake Rosenberg, the team’s cap guru.
There is also the cost it would take to trade for Ngakoue. The Jaguars do not have to trade him, and considering there is almost certainly plenty of interest around the league in Ngakoue, trading for him won't be cheap. It could very well cost a 1st-round pick. Just like paying Ngakoue big money would be a wise investment by the Eagles, however, so would trading a first-round pick for a stud defensive end that has never had under eight sacks in a season and has 37.5 sacks in four years.
Whether the Eagles will acquire Ngakoue remains to be seen. It is fairly obvious that Ngakoue will not be doing a long-term deal with the Jaguars. The Eagles could certainly use Ngakoue, as he is an elite-level defensive end, and the team is in desperate need of help along the edge. His age, skill level and position all line up to be a player that Roseman would spend big on.
This will be the week to see if Roseman can get the deal done.