They say that time heals all wounds. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, that doesn’t apply to their ongoing saga with Yannick Ngakoue. With two weeks to go before the franchise tag extension deadline, Ngakoue’s stance remains unchanged (Twitter link via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com). The defensive end still wants a trade and still doesn’t want to sign the one-year tag.

[RELATED: Five Franchise Tagged Players Have Yet To Sign Tenders]

The Jaguars claim that they’ve tried to mend fences with the 25-year-old. GM Dave Caldwell has also claimed that they haven’t received any offers for Ngakoue. Translated, that probably means that they haven’t been offered enough to part with the young edge rusher.

Ngakoue has registered at least eight sacks in each of his four pro seasons, including a career-high 12.5 sacks in 2017. Plenty of teams would surely like to add Ngakoue, but they’ll only part with so much in the way of draft capital, because acquiring Ngakoue also means giving him a lucrative long-term deal in line with the market.

Ngakoue wants to join the $20MM+ defensive lineman club, but he doesn’t want his induction to come in Jacksonville. For now, he’s facing a one-year, $17.788MM tender that he also says he doesn’t want. If they can’t work things out by the deadline, Ngakoue figures to hold out through training camp at the very least. The threat of a holdout could extend into September as well, but that would be costly in the short-term and the long-term. A full-season holdout would delay Ngakoue’s potential free agency by another year and recreate the same problem in 2021.

The Eagles, Seahawks, and Browns have been keeping their eyes peeled for DEs, but no team wants to commit mega dollars to players with the possibility of major cap restrictions after this year. Besides, the Eagles’ 2021 cap situation is cramped as is, and the Seahawks are running low on available funds for the current year.

The Jaguars did not receive any offers for Yannick Ngakoue, GM Dave Caldwell says (via ESPN.com’s Mike DiRocco). With that, they’re planning to have him on the roster in 2020, though the defensive end won’t be happy about that. 

“I think his options are very limited at this point in time,” Caldwell said. “We’ll welcome him back with open arms when he’s ready to come back, and we look forward to it.”

The Jags discussed a deal with the Raiders earlier this week, but those talks didn’t go anywhere and they fizzled well before the draft started on Thursday night. Also this week, Ngakoue and owner Tony Khan took their battle to Twitter. The two traded barbs as Ngakoue pushed the Jaguars to hurry up and trade him.

“He is a tremendous player, tremendous person,” Caldwell said. “He’s always been first class in everything he’s done here, in the locker room and through his time here, the first four years of his contract. Obviously, he feels like things have not gone the way he wanted. In some aspects, he may have a point. But we put our best foot forward not once but twice, and I hope he sees the light that Jacksonville is a good spot, and it could at the end of the day be his only option.”

Ngakoue has yet to sign his non-exclusive tender for 2020, which would pay him $17.8MM. What he wants is a deal that would be worth roughly $20MM per season – but he doesn’t want it in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars haven’t gotten any real bites on running back Leonard Fournette and they’re in a similar boat with Yannick Ngakoue, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com hears (on Twitter). The franchise-tagged defensive end has been discussed, but there have been no offers. 

[RELATED: Weak Market For Fournette?]

Ideally, the Jaguars would like to find a deal for Ngakoue before Thursday night, allowing them to add picks in this year’s draft. But, to get a deal done, they may have to scale back their asking price. At last check, the Jaguars were asking for a first-round pick, plus more.

Every team in the league would love to add Ngakoue, a 25-year-old edge rusher with a long track record of getting to the quarterback. Still, any club trading for him would have to cough up serious draft capital and sign Ngakoue to a whopping new deal. So far, that’s proven to be too rich for everyone’s blood. Meanwhile, Ngakoue says he’s not interested in moving forward with the Jags.

“The Jaguars are aware I no longer have interest in signing a long term contract in Jacksonville,” tweeted Ngakoue after he was franchise tagged “Duval, I love you and gave you guys everything I got. I’m thankful for the journey and look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.”

With at least eight sacks in each of his four NFL seasons – including 12.5 sacks in 2017 – the former third-round pick has outperformed expectations by every measure. But, for what it’s worth, the advanced metrics called his value into question last year. Instead of trading an early round choice for Ngakoue, teams in need of edge help could hold on to their picks and sign the likes of Jadeveon Clowney.

The Jaguars are asking for a “first-round pick and more” in trade talks involving franchise-tagged edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue, sources tell Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. Ngakoue has requested a trade and indicated he is not interested in signing a long-term with Jacksonville, and the Jaguars have reportedly received some level of interest in the 25-year-old.

Ngakoue will collect $17.788MM under the terms of his franchise tender, but he’s apparently looking for more than $20MM annually on a new deal, reports Brady Henderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Currently, only three edge rushers exceed the $20MM threshold: Khalil Mack, Demarcus Lawrence, and Frank Clark.

It remains to be seen if any club is willing to deal a first-round pick and give Ngakoue a massive extension. The Chiefs performed such a maneuver in acquiring Clark from the Seahawks last offseason, but many teams might shy away from sacrificing such draft capital simply for the right to extend Ngakoue. That could be especially true when another edge rusher — Jadeveon Clowney — is still available on the open market and has reportedly lowered his asking price.

Ngakoue, a third-round pick in the 2016 draft, has posted at least eight sacks in four of his NFL campaigns, but other metrics were down on him in 2019. Among edge defenders with at least 50% playtime, Ngakoue finished just 25th in pressures (51), per Pro Football Focus. And data points like ESPN’s pass rush win rate and double-team rate largely painted Ngakoue as an average rusher, as The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin recently noted on Twitter.

Multiple clubs have reached out to the Jaguars with interest in defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (on Twitter). Ngakoue, who turns 25 today, might continue his (remote) celebration with another club. 

Ngakoue said he wanted out of Jacksonville, but the Jags franchise tagged him anyway. Many assumed that this would be Step 1 towards a tag-and-trade, but that’s not necessarily the case – the Jaguars know that he’s one of the most talented young edge rushers in the game today and they could try to reconcile their differences.

“The Jaguars are aware I no longer have interest in signing a long term contract in Jacksonville,” Ngakoue tweeted a couple weeks back. “Duval, I love you and gave you guys everything I got. I’m thankful for the journey and look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.”

That sentiment hasn’t changed. Ngakoue took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to offer his response to Garafolo’s report:

“Let’s agree to disagree . Why hold a man from taking care of his family. It’s obvious my time is up in my current situation. Let’s both move on @Jaguars 🏁”

Any trade for Ngakoue would require a massive haul in return. It’s believed that the Jaguars are looking for a first-round pick, and then some. It’s a big ask, but not an unrealistic one given Ngakoue’s youth and performance. Since entering the league as the No. 69 overall pick in the 2016 draft, he’s tallied at least eight sacks per season. And, in 2017, he earned a Pro Bowl nod with 12.5 QB takedowns.

The Eagles have reportedly been eyeing Ngakoue and they’re surely not alone. The Jets would be logical suitors, too, though they don’t have him high on their list. Meanwhile, the demand will increase if Jadeveon Clowney is re-signed by the Seahawks or scooped up by another club.

For now, the defensive end is slated to play out the 2020 season with the Jaguars on a one-year, $17.8MM deal.