Breaking down a potential Jadeveon Clowney trade to Tennessee Titans
By Will Lomas
How did we get here and what could force the Texans to make a trade with the Titans?
Did you know that the Houston Texans don’t have a GM right now? Training camps are like a whirlwind keeping media turning in different directions, changing all the time.
However, it was just over a month ago that the Texans fired their GM after one year and then tried to go after Nick Caserio of the New England Patriots.
After that was deemed illegal, the Texans decided that 31 other football teams were wrong and they didn’t need a GM. While all this was going on, they ran out of time to negotiate a long term deal with the franchise tagged Jadeveon Clowney.
So now you have a brain trust in charge of the team’s personnel decisions and they have to decide what they do by committee with rumors suggesting that Bill O’Brien has the loudest voice in the room.
Coaches are not always the most level headed guys and B.O.B is certainly not an exception to this rule. So imagine what his reaction would be to Clowney sitting out of the preseason and saying he wasn’t going to play until he got a new deal.
With an angry coach trying to get rid of a distraction, you now have a group of people motivated to move on from Clowney. Easy enough right? Except, it isn’t.
Like I explained earlier, you can’t negotiate with Clowney until the end of this year when he is a free agent and he is going to demand a huge deal. So, now your list of potential trade options are cut from 31 to 12.
Still there is no way you would trade inside the division right, you have more leverage than that. Well again, not really.
Justis Mosqueda had a great string of tweets about this earlier, so I will let those tweets speak to why the Houston Texans have almost no leverage with Clowney.
You have to understand Houston's (lack of) leverage here:
— Justis Mosqueda (#13for12) 💎🤲 (@JuMosq) August 13, 2019
1) Clowney isn't showing up
2) Clowney can't get a new deal until 2020
3) If you sit on him this year, at most you get a 2021 third-round compensatory pick back *if* you sit on over $100m next offseason and avoid FA
#no
— Justis Mosqueda (#13for12) 💎🤲 (@JuMosq) August 13, 2019
Khalil Mack was able to sign a new contract. Clowney won't be able to. If Clowney does play in 2019, assuming that risk of his long-term money, it doesn't make sense to take a "hometown" discount with a team he's been on for a year vs hitting FA and signing for the most $. https://t.co/H63xJdOI9a
The Clowney situation is kind of similar to the Sheldon Richardson trade (one-year rental for a second-rounder.)
— Justis Mosqueda (#13for12) 💎🤲 (@JuMosq) August 13, 2019
I just...don't think Houston is going to get much more for Clowney at this point with how his contract is. The pressure is on the Texans to build an offensive line https://t.co/ytiD61CjqH
So the quick notes on those tweets are this:
1. The fact that you can’t extend Clowney as soon as he is traded, significantly lowers his value because for all intents and purposes he is on a one-year contract and there is nothing you can really do from testing free agency unless you already agree on a deal.
2. Clowney wants out and everyone knows it. No one is going to give up premium assets on a guy who clearly wants out and won’t play for the team he is on now.
3. The Texans are going to try to spend their massive cap next year, that means that they won’t get a comp pick back for Clowney at all. So all of this talk about “Well, they will end up with a 3rd round pick at worst if they just keep him” is wrong unless they deliberately tank the offseason next year.