4 recent Vikings that didn’t live up to the hype during their tenure

Player No. 3

Yannick Ngakoue - DE (2020)

With there being a ton of uncertainty surrounding the health of defensive end Danielle Hunter heading into the 2020 season, the Vikings decided to make a splash move, and they made a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars for Pro Bowl pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue.

Even if Hunter wasn't able to play in 2020, Minnesota felt they would still have at least one high-level pass rusher after acquiring Ngakoue. Before joining the Vikings, Nagakoue had averaged more than nine sacks per season in four years with the Jaguars.

During his first few games with Minnesota, the former Jacksonville pass rusher performed well, with four sacks in his first four matchups. But the Vikings' defense was terrible in 2020, and there wasn't much Ngakoue could do on his own. Minnesota's secondary was getting torched week after week, and it didn't matter whether they put pressure on the opposing quarterback or not.

Instead of keeping Ngakoue around for the rest of a wasted season, the Vikings decided to trade him to the Baltimore Ravens after Week 6 in exchange for a 2021 third-round draft pick and a 2022 fifth-round selection.

Oddly enough, Ngakoue still wound up leading Minnesota in sacks for the 2020 season despite only appearing in six games for them. So in terms of him not living up to the hype, the majority of the blame for this can be put on the Vikings' lackluster defense and not so much on the player.