Final Damage Tallied From Yannick Ngakoue Debacle in Minnesota

Now that the Baltimore Ravens have been eliminated from the NFL Playoffs, it’s time to revisit one of the more embarrassing moments in Rick Spielman’s career with the Minnesota Vikings. The Yannick Ngakoue debacle.

As you’ll remember, the Vikings traded away 2nd and 5th round picks to Jacksonville in order to get Yannick here. Then, they turned around six games later and traded him to the Baltimore Ravens, for a package that was dependent on his individual and their team achievements for the 2020-21 season.

Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press just tweeted out the final details of the trade, after Baltimore’s playoff elimination over the weekend.

With Baltimore season over, pick #Vikings will get from Ravens in Yannick Ngakoue trade will be No. 91 in third round (they also got 5th in 2022) The #Vikings originally gave up No. 45 in 2nd to JAX for Ngakoue (and a No. 5), so they salvaged something but dropped 46 draft spots.

— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) January 18, 2021

Ngakoue Fallout

They Yannick Ngakoue saga in Minnesota is weird. He only played in (Vikings) purple for six games, but still finished with the team lead for sacks (5). That statistic is sad for a lot of reasons.

You want your GM to be aggressive when a winning window is open but this move seemed forced from the start and they paid 46 draft positions because of it. Rick Spielman hasn’t been shy about making splash deals during his time with the Vikings but this one just looks stupid, in hindsight.

Hell, if Spielman did want to take a run at Deshaun Watson this offseason, having that 2nd-round pick would certainly help his cause. Nope, Mike Zimmer needed Yannick Ngakoue… until he didn’t.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan