Ravens trade for Pro Bowl pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue
The NFL’s stingiest scoring defense and second-best pass rush in terms of sacks—tied with Tampa for the second-most sacks with 22—is about to get a major boost.
The Baltimore Ravens have agreed in principle to a trade with the Minnesota Vikings, pending a physical, for Pro Bowl pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue.
“We are excited to add Yannick Ngakoue to our football team,” General Manager Eric DeCosta stated. “Yannick is someone who we are very familiar with going back to the draft process years ago. He is an exciting player and a dangerous pass rusher who makes us better. Yannick grew up here. He’s the type of person we welcome in our building. Finally, we are not finished building this team, as we continue to chase our ultimate goals.”
While the price per the Ravens press release is in exchange for undisclosed draft picks, according to SPN’s Adam Schefter, Baltimore will be sending a 2021 third-round pick and 2022 conditional fifth-round pick to Minnesota for the premier edge rusher.
This marks the second time in the last three months that Ngakuoe will be on the move to a new team in a new city.
The third-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2016 draft out of Maryland forced his way out of the sunshine state after four productive seasons and was traded to the Vikings back in late August and agreed to a reduced salary on a one-year deal worth $12 million.
The 25-year-old Maryland native who grew up in Bowie, Md., and attended Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, D.C. will be reuniting with veteran defensive end Calais Campbell in Baltimore who he had two of his most productive seasons with as members of the Jaguars from 2017-2019.
Campbell was acquired via trade this offseason from the Jaguars, leads the team with four sacks in six games, and was elated when the news broke.
“I can’t wait to get him in here and hopefully we can go out there and do it like we used to sacking quarterbacks. Meet at the quarterback!” Campbell said.
“I know he wants to win. He loves the game of football. This is a place where he’s going to flourish. This culture is going to bring the best out of him and his game. He’s just scratching the surface of how good he can be.”
In six games and five starts with the Vikings, Ngakuoe led Minnesota in sacks with five and recorded 12 solo tackles, five tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and seven quarterback hits.
For a player that held out all of training camp after an offseason limited by COVID-19, that is astonishingly productive.
The former Terp has amassed 42.5 sacks, 134 total tackles (117 solos), 16 forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, nine passes defended, and two interceptions in 69 career games.
His best single season in the pros came in 2017, his first year paired up with Campbell, where he recorded career-highs with 12 sacks and a league-leading six forced fumbles and also notched 30 tackles, 23 quarterback hits, scored his only career touchdown, and earned his first and only Pro Bowl nod.
Ngakoue has recorded four straight seasons dating back to his rookie year with at least eight sacks and is on pace to make it five in a row. Only Aaron Donald (six), Von Miller (six), Chandler Jones (five) and Khalil Mack (five) have longer active streaks in the NFL.
Baltimore already had arguably the best defense in the league already and will now be even more deadly when it comes to generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks and forcing turnovers.
The Ravens currently have the second-most in the league with 11 and have 19 consecutive game streak with at least one forced.
