Interrupted Layers Printing Ninjaflex

I just received a mini v2 printer last week and had been having great success with both Ninjaflex and PLA filaments. However, when I tried to printer a taller, and longer print time, part I ran into an issue (see the attached photo). Occasionally a number of layers will look terrible and as if filament stopped feeding for a bit. My hypothesis is that there is excessive tension on the filament as it is coming off of the spool. My guess is the softer material allows the filaments to “stick” to itself on the spool and some of the strands on the leading layer (making up my own terminology here) are getting pinch by layers below. Once the filament breaks free from the spool the print continues and the layers look great. I don’t think there is any issue with the printer itself. If I babysit the print and manually feed filament off the spool to keep minimal tension on the feeding strand, the print will turn out great. I would like to be able to press print and walk away. Has anyone had a similar experience with flexible filaments? Does my hypothesis sound plausible? What things should I try to overcome this issue? Any input is appreciated.

Try tightening the extruder thumbscrew so the hobbed gear bites into the filament a little bit more. The captured nut should be roughly in the middle of the window. If tightening doesn’t help, reach out to the support team with more pictures and details: https://LulzBot.com/Support