Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Jags' Yannick Ngakoue wants to give teams that slept on him nightmares

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Yannick Ngakoue seethed.

Every time he saw a defensive end or outside linebacker’s name scroll across his television screen he got angrier and angrier. He knew he was the best pass-rusher in the 2016 draft and there was no way those teams should have drafted those players over him.

No. Freakin’. Way.

He was elated when the Jacksonville Jaguars took him with the sixth pick of the third round (69th overall), but the fact that he had to wait that long just strengthened his desire to make the teams that passed on him regret their decision.

They were sleeping on him, he said, and now he’s going to give them nightmares.

“Just being a third-round pick, that was enough fuel right there,” Ngakoue said. “Thirty-one teams passed up on me on the draft and I was just seeing guys’ names going ahead of me. It just fueled me to just go hard. I just feel like I’m proving myself.”

Ngakoue is proving he shouldn’t have had to wait that long for his name to be called last year. Since 2016, he has more sacks (18.5) than all but one other player drafted last season (Joey Bosa has 22), and he’s tied for the NFL lead with Vic Beasley with seven strip-sacks since the 2016 season began.

First-round pick Leonard Floyd (ninth overall) is the closest player from the 2016 draft class to Ngakoue in terms of production, and he has 11.5 sacks. DeForest Buckner (seventh overall) has 7.5 and Shaq Lawson (19th overall) has 6.0.

Ngakoue had 8.0 sacks as a rookie, which broke Tony Brackens’ previous single-season Jags rookie record (seven), but he wasn't satisfied. He believed he should have had several more sacks and that would have allowed him to win the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award, which went to Bosa.

Ngakoue took only two weeks off after the season and then went back to training. He’s gotten bigger and stronger, and the result is 10 sacks in 12 games. But he hasn’t lost any of his drive to continually prove teams made a huge mistake by passing on him last year.

When defensive end Calais Campbell was talking to the media after his sack against Indianapolis last Sunday gave him a single-season franchise record 12.5, Ngakoue strolled by the scrum on his way out of the locker room and said: “Don’t get comfortable. I’m coming for you.”

Ngakoue is never satisfiewith what he’s done.

“I think what’s going to make him one of the greats to ever play the game is because of that drive,” Campbell said. “I think you find it in all the greats, whether they’re rookies or after their 10th year. It’s that mentality where you want to be the very best and you’re going to push yourself and work hard. I don’t think that it develops later in guys. I think he just has that ability and that drive to want to be the very best. And that’s why he will be.”

Ngakoue is tied for seventh in the NFL in sacks -- only 1.5 behind Bosa -- and defensive coordinator Todd Wash said Ngakoue is a much more complete player than he was last season. He’s better against the run and has gotten better fundamentally.

Ngakoue said he has a much better feel for what’s happening on the field, too.

“I feel like the game’s slowed down for me a lot,” he said. “I can see what’s coming. I can tell when a guy’s scared of me because he looks like he’s about to jump offsides.

“… I can tell when guys are nervous. You’ve got to use that to your advantage to go even harder.”

Pro Bowl voting closes soon and Ngakoue wants to hear his name called for that honor when the team is announced on Dec. 19. He’s hopeful he doesn’t have to wait as long as he did to be drafted.

“I didn’t come in with the name and the stars [draft rating] behind me,” Ngakoue said. “I’m making a name for myself now. I feel like I’m one of the elite pass-rushers in the league. Have to get that feeling through [to] everybody watching the [games on] television.”

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