What the Vikings can expect from new DE Yannick Ngakoue

The Bad

Decrease in production last season

After putting an impressive amount of pressure on opposing quarterbacks in 2018, Yannick Ngakoue saw some of his pass-rushing production trend in the wrong direction last season.

In 2019, Ngakoue experienced a decrease in sacks (9.5 to 8.0), quarterback hits (33 to 15), and pressures (51 to 27) compared to the numbers he put up during the 2018 season.

Could potentially leave in 2021

Ideally, the Vikings would like to sign their new defensive end to a multi-year contract to keep him on the roster for longer than just one season. But there’s a chance that won’t happen.

Since Ngakoue had the franchise tag placed on him by the Jaguars this offseason, Minnesota cannot add any years onto his current contract. So the Vikings will have to wait until 2021 to complete any sort of long-term deal with the talented pass rusher.

New deal now unlikely for Cook

Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook has been hoping to land an extension from the team all year long. Recently, those contract talks were put on hold and the chances of Cook getting a new deal before hitting free agency in 2021 certainly went down.

With the arrival of Ngakoue, any cap space the Vikings had this year is expected to virtually disappear. Since Minnesota could potentially sign Cook to a new contract that doesn’t increase his 2020 cap, an extension this year can’t be completely ruled out. But the likelihood of it happening certainly took a hit on Sunday following the Vikings’ decision to trade for Ngakoue.