Patriots Reportedly Claim Pro Bowl Pass-Rusher Ahead Of Bears Game
The New England Patriots didn’t make any moves prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline. Instead, they waited until after the deadline passed to make an addition to their defense.
According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Patriots claimed pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue on Friday after the veteran defensive end was waived by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday.
The Patriots will be Ngakoue’s seventh team in his nine-year NFL career. He played in only five games for the Ravens this season and recorded just 1.5 sacks. The 29-year-old is a long way off from his 2017 Pro Bowl season when he tallied a career-high 12 sacks and a league-leading six forced fumbles with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ngakoue also spent time with the Minnesota Vikings, Las Vegas Raiders, Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts, who he had 9.5 sacks with just two seasons ago.
The Patriots will try to tap into Ngakoue’s pass-rushing skills as they have struggled to consistently generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks — they rank fourth-worst in the NFL with 16 total sacks in nine games.
Part of that reason is they traded outside linebacker Matthew Judon to the Atlanta Falcons prior to the season and dealt Joshua Uche to the Kansas City Chiefs last week. Keion White, who the Patriots rely on heavily for their pass rush, got off to a hot start with four sacks through the first two games but has yet to register one since then.
The Patriots will inherit the remaining $656,667 of Ngakoue’s salary, according to the Boston Herald’s Doug Kyed.