One of many questions swirling around the Jaguars off-season has already been answered after day one of OTA's as Yannick Ngakoue showed up to participate in the Organized Team Activities. Yannick has decided the best way for him to earn a contract is to let his agent do the negotiations while he shows up to work with his teammates. “It’s self-explanatory what I’ve done in three years,” said Ngakoue via The Florida Times-Union. “That’s more of a front office question. They control those things. The only thing I can control is getting better. So that’s why I left and tried to get better.”
Head Coach Doug Marrone was asked what he thinks about the message being sent by Ngakoue “I think it’s always good when you’re around your teammates. Consistency and being around, I think that’s part of the chemistry and all the other stuff, so yeah, I’m appreciative of all the players that are here during this voluntary period.”
Yannick is in the final year of his rookie deal, he is due to make $2 million in 2019. Many players who are on par with Ngakoue in terms of production in their respective positions choose to sit out OTA's and in some cases even longer while negotioating for a new deal. But Yannick says he's playing and participating as much as he can this off-season in an effort to make he and the team better. “Of course I’m going to play," he said via Phil Heilman. "I love the game. I’ve been playing this game my whole life and that’s what I’m here to do.”