3 Titans who would benefit the most from Jadeveon Clowney
By Will Lomas
Harold Landry
After all of that talk about Clowney being a pass rusher first and a run defender second, you might think that his impact would look something like this:
1. Clowney comes in to rush the passer
2. Most of the time that will be opposite Landry, but there could be times where Landry is taken off instead.
3. They aren’t going to spend all that money on Vic Beasley and Jadeveon Clowney and still let Harold Landry lead EDGEs in snaps.
And maybe some of that is true, but you have to remember that the Titans have already said that they want to work to keep Landry fresh for pass-rushing downs. To me, that says that they would likely want him to play every (or nearly every) 3rd down or obvious pass rush situation.
They can do that without leaving Vic Beasley on the sideline as well, and you only have to look to Mike Vrabel‘s tendencies last year and the year that he was the DC for Clowney to see how that works out (but more on that in a minute).
Vrabel loves to use a stand-up A-gap/B-gap defender who can rush from the inside and last year, that job went to Rashaan Evans because the Titans want to use him as a pass rusher when they can. However, Vrabel also used Clowney in this role when he was the DC in Houston.
I would expect this is how the Titans get Harold Landry, Vic Beasley and Jadeveon Clowney on the field at the same time.
The good news for Landry (and this is big) is that he finally gets another EDGE opposite him who can rush the passer. The only other time that happened was in the 9 games where Cameron Wake played for the Titans last year, and in those games, Landry had 7 of his 9 sacks compared to just 2 sacks in the 7 games without Wake.
Only one player helped others get sacks better than Clowney according to this stat:
https://twitter.com/FO_ASchatz/status/1285954939693551617
So you are combining someone who thrives with a competent EDGE opposite him, and an EDGE who helps those around him produce as well as nearly every other defender in the NFL. That is the dream for Landry stans.