Jadeveon Clowney impacts Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks, Titans draft
By Will Lomas
Why Jadeveon Clowney should still be a high priority target.
One of the biggest takeaways from the latest batch of rumors with Jadeveon Clowney is that the price tag is coming down in more ways than one.
Not only is Clowney’s AAV dropping from his desired $20 million to somewhere closer to $14 million, but it looks like he is going to take a shorter deal so he can jump back on the market quickly. This isn’t exactly revolutionary because we have seen Ndamukong Suh use this tactic in free agency and essentially become a year-by-year mercenary.
That limits the variables in a contract and makes things very simple while allowing a player to capitalize on the market year after year. However the sacrifice is that you don’t get those mega-deals worth $100 million and you get very little long term stability.
For a player like Jadeveon Clowney this strategy is very dangerous because if he fails to play a full season for the 5th time in 6 NFL seasons, it is going to limit his market going forward.
What that means for these teams is that they are going to get an incredibly motivated Jadeveon Clowney who is going to refuse to let bumps and bruises keep him down. On top of that, he probably knows now that getting sacks, not just the level of play across the board, is the key to the big contract that he expected to get this season.
Justin Houston proved that late additions on the EDGE can produce for the teams that sign those guys regardless of injury concerns. So teams should be every bit as interested in Clowney as they were before and I would argue that the margin for error is much greater because you have three options:
A. Re-sign him after the season and lock him down
B. Let him walk because he wasn’t worth the price and likely collect a compensatory pick in 2022
C. Franchise tag him if a long term deal can’t be reached.