BEREA, Ohio — The Browns engaged in serious trade talks for pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue, traded from the Jaguars to the Vikings on Sunday, but opted in the end to move on from the deal, league sources told cleveland.com.
Ngakoue, 25, was dealt to the Vikings Sunday for a second-round pick in 2021 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2022 that can improve to a third, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
As first reported by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Ngakoue agreed to take substantially less from the Vikings than his 2020 franchise tender to get the deal done. He was due $17.788 million and agreed to about $13.5 million. The kicker, Florio stated, is that there was at least one other team Ngakoue would’ve taken even less to play for.
League sources told cleveland.com that Ngakoue really wanted to play for the Browns, so they’re likely the team he would’ve taken even less to play for.
It’s not so much the draft pick compensation that was the sticking point for the Browns, because they might’ve been coaxed out of a second-round pick. But Ngakoue was in the midst of changing representation was all of this was going on, and it made for a complicated negotiation.
By the time Ngakoue changed agents, the deadline for extending a franchised player had passed, so they would have had to have given up a second-round pick not being entirely certain they could get an extension done after the season.
By that time, the Browns had also decided it was time to move on and do by right by defensive end Olivier Vernon, who was patient and worked hard in the offseason while the Browns pursued Jadeveon Clowney and Ngakoue.
They restructured Vernon’s contract, reducing it from a non-guaranteed $15.25 million in 2020 to a guaranteed $11 million. They also gave him a $4 million signing bonus, up to $2 million in incentives and a no-tag clause ensuring he becomes a free agent after the season.
The guaranteed money for Vernon didn’t necessarily eliminate the chance of the Browns signing Clowney or trading for Ngakoue, but made both a lot less likely.
Clowney’s salary demands were too high -- somewhere around $17 million a year -- and the deal for Ngakoue became complicated because of the tender deadline, the agent switch and the draft pick compensation.
If Ngakoue hadn’t been dealt, the Browns could’ve pursued him again in the offseason, but he was determined to get out of Jacksonville, and obviously wanted out badly enough to take more than a $4 million paycut this year. Ultimately, the Vikings plan to extend him, so it should work out for both sides in the end.
Meanwhile, the Browns are happy with Vernon, who’s had an excellent camp, and they’re hoping he’s the perfect complement to Myles Garrett this season.
As time goes on, they’ll discover if not pulling the trigger on a Ngakoue deal was the right move.
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