MARCH 14: Clowney has another suitor in the Jets. The defensive lineman will visit with the Jets next week, according to Garafolo. The veteran will consider “multiple options” before making his decision. Clowney’s Jets visit is set for Tuesday, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets.
The Jets are in natural need of some reinforcement on the edge. The team lost Bryce Huff to the Eagles, opening close to 500 defensive snaps alongside Jermaine Johnson and John Franklin-Myers.
MARCH 13: Known to take his time during free agency, Jadeveon Clowney has spent the 2020s journeying the league on one-year deals. The South Carolina alum’s next trip will be in a familiar region.
The Rock Hill, South Carolina, native is set to make a trip to visit the Panthers, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo. A few teams are monitoring the Clowney market; this includes the Ravens, who coaxed a quality season from the nomadic pass rusher in 2023. The Panthers are meeting with Clowney, Chase Young and D.J. Wonnum on Thursday, ESPN’s David Newton tweets.
[RELATED: Panthers Trade OLB Brian Burns To Giants]
It took Clowney until mid-August to land a deal last year, and the former No. 1 overall pick’s Baltimore pact was worth only $2.5MM. After another bounce-back season, the South Carolina alum can aim higher. Clowney has never secured a long-term deal since the expiration of his Texans rookie contract, but he has done well for himself on this bevy of one-year agreements. Though, the edge defender has never come especially close to the kind of top-market contract that once seemed in play while he was in Houston.
En route to a No. 1 defensive ranking, the Ravens received Clowney’s top sack season. Known more for an all-around game, Clowney has never reached double-digit sacks in a season. His three Pro Bowls came back in Houston. But the once-elite prospect has four seasons with at least nine sacks on his resume.
Injury issues and inconsistency have impeded Clowney on the contract front, as he was not especially productive in Seattle, Tennessee or during his second year in Cleveland. But he did total nine sacks opposite Myles Garrett in 2021 while helping a previously edge-deficient Ravens team thrive — opposite September addition Kyle Van Noy — last season. Clowney totaled 19 QB hits for the second time in three years.
The Panthers made a rather surprising decision to accept second- and fifth-round picks from the Giants to wrap their years-long Brian Burns saga. That tag-and-trade transaction leaves the Panthers with next to nothing at edge rusher, with former second-round pick Yetur Gross-Matos agreeing to a two-year, $18MM 49ers deal as well. Clowney would help, though the move would remind — to a degree, at least — of last year’s Justin Houston stopgap addition.
Mentioned as being interested in retaining Clowney earlier this week, the Ravens are again in need on the edge. Their most recent band-aid pass rushers — Clowney and Van Noy — are both free agents. While Baltimore extended Justin Madubuike on a deal that set up the big-ticket Chris Jones and Christian Wilkins contracts, the team needs to fill out its outside linebacker depth chart once again.
Will Clowney match Fitzmagic for amount of teams played for?
Perhaps, if he first pays homage to the great Josh Johnson.
Wonder how we would think about Jadeveon differently if he had not followed Le’Veon Bell in 2018. Clowney didn’t sit out, but he did hold out following Bell’s lead. Houston offered him a long term contract but Clowney refused to sign wanting to ensure he made more than Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack.
Jadeveon Clowney had been on single year contracts ever since.
It’s a good question. Clowney waited forever to sign with Tennessee in 2020, and missed pretty much their entire offseason program and certainly could have performed better. To me, that decision was impacted by his failure to secure a long term deal in Houston, which led to his trade to Seattle. He didn’t get that deal in Seattle either, and so went looking for one into that ensuing offseason, which led to his inactivity during the summer (yes, he was injured again, but that wait prevented Clowney from getting acclimated as he arguably should have done).
Now, I can’t remember off the top of my head what Houston offered, but that trade seemed rather abrupt and for a relatively low value for a player who was at the time still potentially a franchise piece. Hindsight is 20/20, but it seems to me that working out a deal in Houston would have really benefitted both Clowney and the Texans, if his development continued positively instead of having him bounce around from team to team-and of course, the Texans would have seen an increased return on their pick.
Clowney would help Carolina on the edge and be in a familiar place, but I think that he would benefit the most from staying in Baltimore. The money is good to have, but another productive year with the Ravens could set him up nicely for another contract-maybe even his last one, depending on how things go.
Isn’t this the Raiders year for Clowney, or is next year?
I dunno, maybe the Panthers are filling that void for the next few years.
I kind of like Morgan’s moves since becoming GM, but that’s because I pin the vast majority of the blame for the Burns situation on Fitterer (of course, that was likely at Tepper’s behest, which still isn’t Morgan’s fault).
Wil McDonald certainly would get some of those 500 snaps but Clowney would be very good addition to that rotation.
The Jets? They don’t need anymore freakin’ DL…what they do need are OFFENSIVE lineman! Man, that organization is clueless. Their 40 year old QB/Asst GM/VP might appreciate an upgrade at that position. BTW, when is Bakhtiari signing with them??