The Vikings Trade from One Year Ago Today
On August 30th, 2020, Yannick Ngakoue was dealt to the Minnesota Vikings early on a Sunday morning for a 2nd-Round pick in 2021 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2022. Ngakoue was at a contractual impasse with the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team in full sell-off mode after reaching the AFC Championship in 2017. The Vikings seized the bait and sought to employ a duo of EDGE rushers that would inspire nightmares.
But the pairing of Danielle Hunter and Yannick Ngakoue was a pipe dream. Hunter did not play a single down of football in the 2020 season.
Instead of Hunter and Ngakoue wreaking havoc on Sunday afternoons, Minnesota opted for an experiment of Ifeadi Odenigbo and Ngakoue as its defensive ends. It didn’t go well.
The Vikings 2020 pass rush was miserable – the worst in the NFL, in fact – and the Hunter-Ngakoue utopia was actually dystopian.
Why? Because one year ago today, the Ngakoue trial ended with a whimper. The pass rusher was traded to the Baltimore Ravens in, what felt like, the beginning of a fire sale as the Vikings stood at 1-5 entering the 2020 bye week.
The fire sale never extended beyond Ngakoue, but Minnesota emphatically threw in the towel on the high hopes for its 2020 pass rush. Instead, Odenigbo received more playing time, providing the coaching staff with intel that he was not a long-term starting asset on the defensive line. He was released last spring.
Ngakoue tallied a handful of sacks for the 1-5 Vikings during the pandemic season, but his existence on the team is now one of comedic legend. The trade was ill-fated – and costly.
General Manager Rick Spielman spent that 2nd-Round pick for six games of a pass rusher on a 1-5 team. Not a good look – especially when the 2nd Round is widely known for Spielman triumphs. It’s the round he found Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, Brian O’Neill, and Irv Smith Jr.
Yet, the trade-after-the-trade of Ngakoue is still a work in progress. Ngakoue didn’t last long for the Ravens – he doesn’t play there anymore – so the Vikings kinda-sorta got the best of Baltimore in the clawback deal.
The trade spoils? Ngakoue went to the Ravens for the remainder of 2020 and signed with the Las Vegas Raiders thereafter in free agency. The Vikings received a 2021 3rd-Rounder, which was used to select Patrick Jones II from the University of Pittsburgh. Jones may have a bright future, but he isn’t playing much for the Vikings in 2021.
Spielman also received a conditional 5th-Round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft for Ngakoue in addition to Jones. The full merits of the trade will play out next spring.
On the other hand, the Jaguars used the 2nd-Round draft capital from the trade of Ngakoue to the Vikings on offensive tackle Walker Little. And inside his rookie season thus far in Jacksonville, Little has played one single offensive snap.
The “who won the trade?” is a work in progress. If Little ends up as a stalwart tackle with the Jaguars, the Vikings will get the short end of the stick. If Jones eventually starts for the Vikings, then Minnesota will look fancy.
The in-the-now losers are the Baltimore Ravens. They gifted the Vikings two draft picks for three sacks and 11 tackles on 348 defensive snaps from Ngakoue (during his brief Ravens tenure). He was supposed to aid the defense amid a playoff push, but Baltimore lost in the Divisional Round of the playoffs to the Buffalo Bills. But they did receive a 4th-Round compensatory pick for the loss of Ngakoue.
In the end, here is the threeway conglomeration of trade spoils:
Minnesota Received:
- 6 Games of Yannick Ngakoue
- Patrick Jones II (DE)
- 2022 Conditional 5th Round Pick
Jacksonville Received:
- Walker Little (OT)
- 2022 Conditional 5th Round Pick
Baltimore Received:
- 9 Games of Yannick Ngakoue
- Compensatory 4th-Round Pick for Ngakoue exit
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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