Why NFL Teams Should be Wary of Jadeveon Clowney

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At the end of the 2019 season, it appeared Houston Texans star linebacker Jadeveon Clowney was going to break the bank wherever he ended up in free agency. That is, until the Texans placed the franchise tag on him, which allowed Houston to keep his rights for one more year on a fully guaranteed contract. After a heated few weeks in which the Texans and Clowney’s agent argued over whether to tag him as an outside linebacker or defensive end, as being tagged as a defensive end guaranteed him more money, Clowney stated he wanted a new contract. Now, when an NFL player has been hit with the franchise tag, there is a window, that ends on July 15, which allows teams and players to negotiate a long-term deal. Otherwise, the player is forced to stay on the franchise tag for the year and cannot negotiate a new contract until they enter free agency. 

In the early stages of this process, it appeared Clowney would get the deal he wanted and be secured in Houston for the next few years. However, on June 7th, the Texans fired their general manager Brian Gaine in a move that shook the entire NFL. The Texans had apparently been angling to hire Nick Caserio, the director of player personnel for the New England Patriots until New England filed tampering charges against the Texans, and Houston was ultimately forced to give up on their pursuit. And since then, the Texans have been left without a general manager, and Clowney has been left without a contract.

In the following weeks, trade rumors started to ramp up, and teams such as the Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Baltimore Ravens’ names were often thrown in the loop for potential suitors for Clowney. Now, the reason I’m writing this article is to tell you (and NFL executives but they probably don’t read the articles of some Kansas kid who goes to school at a former llama farm) why trading for Clowney is a bad idea. A very bad idea. A no-good, awful, terrible idea. Starting with…..

1. Injuries: Clowney has had major surgeries each of the past 5 years. With the exception of 2016 and 2017, he has had multiple surgeries each of those years, including two back surgeries and three knee surgeries. He has missed 19 games over his 5-year career, and he would have missed more if he hadn’t played through injury. Yes, he is tough, but he hasn’t ever been able to be at full strength for a full season.​ 
   
2. Production: Clowney has always been overhyped. Coming out of college, he had the same injury concerns and didn’t have great production with only 24.0 sacks over 3 years, and 3.0 of those coming in his final year as a junior, and still he was drafted with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft. In the NFL, it has been the same issue: he has 29.0 sacks in 5 years and has never topped 10.0 in a season, with his highest being 9.5 in 2017. In 2018 he registered 9.0 sacks, all while playing opposite J.J. Watt, which meant Clowney received almost no double team blocks. He is great against the run, but with the league shifting towards a passing norm, being able to get after the quarterback is the most important thing a defense can do, and Clowney has been above average at best. 
   
3. The Price: Clowney won’t come cheap for any NFL team that wants to trade for him. He will likely cost a good player plus a high pick, and I just don’t see him as being a player worth that price. For example, a twitter account with some influence made an incorrect tweet about a week ago, stating that the Baltimore Ravens were trading for Jadeveon Clowney in exchange for starting corner Jimmy Smith and a second-round pick. Jimmy Smith has some health issues, but he plays like an All-Pro caliber corner when healthy, and Clowney is nowhere near that level of play. You also are giving up a second-round pick in the 2020 draft, which is loaded with skilled position players, and Clowney is not at all worth that much.
   
4. You Can’t Resign Him: I mean you can, but you have to wait until free agency, and then he will be even more expensive. Because the negotiation deadline has passed, Clowney cannot negotiate or sign with another team until the 2020 free agency period begins, and then it will be at an astronomically high price. I think my best comparison for this will be C.J. Mosely, a good but nowhere near great player, and the contract he received in free agency. 5 years, $85 million, with $51 million guaranteed, and an average of $17 million a year. That was unheard of for a middle linebacker, especially one like Mosely who has known issues in pass coverage. It will be a very similar deal for Clowney, who will receive a massive contract from a desperate team, and then, due to the fact the NFL has a hard cap of $200 million dollars (this means that teams can spend a total of $200 million dollars across all player salaries in an effort to provide fairness), he will completely ruin their cap situation for years. 

And so, I don’t think teams should trade for Clowney. If they do, they are trading for a good-not-great, injury-prone player on a one-year rental, and they have no guarantee they can resign him. And if they do, it won’t be cheap. I just hope NFL executives realize this before they make a horrible mistake and saddle their team on the shoulders of a player who really isn’t worth it. But, alas, this is the world we live in. By the time this gets published Clowney may already be on the move. Just don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Garrison Funk

​Garrison Funk is the Director of Sports Commentaries for The Weekly Cad.