Yannick Ngakoue Placed on Colts' Injured Reserve With Throat Injury

The Indianapolis Colts placed defensive end Yannick Ngakoue on season-ending injured reserve Saturday because of a throat injury, according to James Boyd of The Athletic.

Boyd noted that Ngakoue suffered the injury during Monday's 20-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Per Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk, Ngakoue was a late addition to the Colts' injury report on Friday ahead of Sunday's game against the New York Giants.

With Ngakoue on the shelf, the struggling 4-10-1 Colts will be without one of their top defensive players Sunday against the Giants and in Week 18 against the Houston Texans.

The 27-year-old Ngakoue is in his first season with the Colts after Indy acquired him in an offseason trade with the Las Vegas Raiders for cornerback Rock Ya-Sin.

While the Colts have won the trade to this point, Ngakoue is set to become a free agent after the season.

Las Vegas traded Ngakoue after his one season with the team and signed Chandler Jones, who was brought in to complement two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby.

Jones has 4.5 sacks, 38 tackles, three tackles for loss, one forced fumble and three fumble recoveries in 15 games, while Ngakoue ends his campaign with 9.5 sacks, 29 tackles, eight tackles for loss and one forced fumble.

Ngakoue fell just short of his third double-digit sack season, as he registered 10 last season and 12 in 2017 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, which marked his only Pro Bowl season.

The 2016 third-round pick out of Maryland has been one of the most productive pass-rushers in the NFL since entering the league, racking up 65 sacks in 110 regular-season games.

Despite that, he has played for five teams in seven seasons.

After spending his first four seasons with Jacksonville, Ngakoue was traded to the Minnesota Vikings before the 2020 season, and Minnesota flipped him to the Baltimore Ravens less than two months later.

Impressively, Ngakoue has finished with eight or more sacks in each of his seasons, plus he is the Colts' leader in sacks this season, 1.5 ahead of defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.

Given how consistently productive he has been, Ngakoue should be in line to land a significant contract in free agency whether it is with the Colts or another team.