(05-27-2022, 10:23 PM)Bullseye Wrote: (05-27-2022, 08:18 AM)Mikey Wrote: ....is it that they project having no use for a guy with Ngakoue's skills, or no use for Ngakoue himself?
Careful when painting with a broad brush. Certainly Ngakoue is talented. But can you expect to replicate his skillset in someone else without the ego/history that comes with Yan?
Ego?!?
Seriously?!? Your problem with Ngakoue is ego?
Here's a newsflash: NFL players have been the elite athletes in their schools and communities in their entire lives. They have been gifted adulation and admiration for their athletic prowess. People have offered and paid them great sums of money/in kind contributions, etc. to get them to come to their schools, where thousands, perhaps millions will cheer them on, only to have more of them do so on Sundays. NFL players-especially good and great ones-have large egos.
You think Deion Sanders didn't have an ego? Too easy? What about Tony Boselli? Was that humility talking when he beckoned Jason Taylor to come down the field on that Monday Night game? What about when Fred Taylor got in a snit when he wasn't named the best player in Jaguars history? That wasn't his ego shining through? When Richard Sherman called out Crabtree after the NFC championship game a few years back? That wasn't ego? When Peyton Manning told Polian that if he didn't draft him, he would kick his butt for 15 years, that was ego. When Tom Brady trash talked Honey Badger in the Super Bowl a couple of years back, that was ego. What about when Aaron Rodgers told Chicago Bears fans in Soldier Field "I Still own you!!" that epitomized pure, unadulterated ego. Do you seriously argue you wouldn't want any of those guys on the Jaguars because of ego?!?
But okay. I'll play along and assume the fans that wanted Ngakoue gone because of his ego. What about Brackens? Brackens didn't get in a very public and nasty post training camp practice fight with a teammate. Brackens didn't get into any nasty public acrimonious and vituperative back and forth with the son of the owner. There were no public demands to be traded. Yet despite his comparatively low key demeanor, people in this fan base still wanted him gone. They still thought he dogged it most games. They still trashed him even when he made spectacular plays.
It's just odd to me that so much venom is reserved for the team's most productive players when this team has been so bad for so long. To me, it makes zero sense to get rid of productive players at the most valuable positions in football, especially without viable replacements in the wings. It doesn't make any sense to Doug Pederson, either. Otherwise, he wouldn't have made such a big deal about retaining Josh Allen and Cam Robinson. He knows there are tanglible and intangible benefits to retaining your best players. But some Jaguars fans simply don't understand this. They think we can go to the edge rusher tree and get another edge rusher. The Jaguars have repeatedly proven with the misses on Hugh Douglas, Reggie Hayward, Aaron Kampman, Derrick Harvey, Quentin Groves, Tyson Alualu, Dante Fowler and many others that it isn't that simple. With all of those colossal failures at that position in mind, being in a rush to rid the team of a guy like Ngakoue is foolish.
Dude, this is taking things way too personally. What word would you use to describe someone who thinks they deserve top five money or refuses to play for a particular team/coach/owner/GM?
I used "ego". Sorry if that caused you internal strife.
You lamented that many fans think the team has no use for a guy with Yan's skills. I simply stated that the problem among fans might not be the skillset, but the player. Maybe it's the price tag?
If our goal is to find a guy who can rush the passer and rush the passer alone, my thinking is that we can easily find that around the league without having to revisit the drama we encountered with Yan. I'd like the bar to be a little higher than that, but at the very least, seeking help from different players may end up more affordable, younger, or less distracting, and wouldn't that be just as good if not better?
