Want Seahawks to trade for Jadeveon Clowney? It’s even more problematic than it may seem
The latest fevered rumor burning up a Seahawks fan base that this year has already sweated a Ciara-wants-Russell-Wilson-to-be-a-New-York-Giant fable?
Seattle trading for Jadeveon Clowney.
It is a hugely attractive thought.
Clowney, 26, has been selected to the last three Pro Bowls as a pass rusher for the Houston Texans. The Seahawks’ pass rush is the weakest and most troublesome area of their team. That’s even with top sack man Ziggy Ansah practicing for the first time with them Tuesday and now on track to play in the season opener Sept. 8.
Clowney was the first-overall draft choice by Houston in 2014. The Texans placed their 2019 franchise tag to keep the defensive end from leaving in free agency. He doesn’t want to play under the franchise tag. He wants a new bigger contract for 2020 and beyond. He hasn’t signed the tender offer as Houston’s tagged player, so he’s not playing right now.
Clowney has met in person with the Miami Dolphins about a possible trade, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and the Houston Chronicle.
But he wants to play for the Seahawks or Philadelphia Eagles, Aaron Wilson of the Chronicle also reported Tuesday.
“The Texans are determined to trade Clowney and would be ‘reasonable’ in any potential trade, according to multiple sources,” Wilson reported Tuesday.
That has an already spicy idea really heating up Seahawks fans.
Because it is past an NFL deadline of July 15 for players to sign franchise-tag tenders or longer-term contracts with their tagging team, Clowney can only play the 2019 season under the tag at a guaranteed salary of $15.97 million. He cannot sign a new contract for 2020 and beyond until after this regular season, at the end of December.
The question now is whether the Texans or another team pays that $15.97 million. Or whether Clowney pulls a Le’Veon Bell: not sign the franchise tag at all this year and sit out the entire season. Bell did that to the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. He signed a new deal this spring with the New York Jets.
Clowney couldn’t be traded until he reports to the Texans and signs his franchise-tag tender.
Seahawks fans are about begging for their team to take the issue off the Texans’ hands and deal for Clowney. Now. Before the first game against Cincinnati.
Here’s why it is unlikely. That is, unless coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider suddenly act counter to much of what they’ve done for the last decade.
Any team trading for Clowney now is getting a rental player for four months before he would become eligible for the big bucks he wants in the open market of free agency. This is not a Frank Clark situation.
The Seahawks traded Clark, their top sack man, in April after giving him the franchise tag, but before the July 15 deadline. That allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to do a trade-and-sign deal with Clark. The Chiefs gave Clark the $20 million a year in a new deal that he was seeking from Seattle. The Seahawks decided to give about that much money, $18 million annually, to All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner last month instead.
The Seahawks saw two years ago what can happen when you rent a coveted player. They traded a second-round draft choice and wide receiver Jermaine Kearse to the Jets to get defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson because they thought he was the last piece needed to reach the Super Bowl. The Seahawks missed the playoffs for the only time in the last seven seasons in 2017. Richardson left after playing for Seattle for four months. He signed in free agency with Minnesota in the spring of 2018.
Trading for Clowney is likely to cost any acquiring team a top draft choice plus a player who could start right away and fill a pressing need for Houston. The Texans have two: left tackle and running back.
They’ve been looking for a left tackle since Duane Brown got mad at them for placing a franchise tag on him in 2017. Brown eventually burned so many Houston bridges the Texans traded him to the Seahawks. That was in October 2017. It was done with the Seahawks telling Brown at the time of the deal they intended to sign him to a long-term contract after he played out his tagged year.
They did. Brown signed a $36.5 million, three-year deal with Seattle in July 2018. He says he wants to retire as a Seahawk.
Yet Carroll and Schneider still felt stung by deal for Brown entering this spring’s draft, when they lacked that traded second-round choice and began with a league-low four picks.
Schneider eventually traded his way into a total of 11 picks in this past draft. The Clark trade netted Seattle the Chiefs’ second-round pick in 2020.
That is the pick Seahawks fans want their team to use in a package for Clowney. In general, Schneider has been in the business of stockpiling draft choice for competition depth, not giving them away so another team can do that. Seattle could have as many as a whopping 12 draft choices for 2020, if projections for gaining four compensatory choices for free agents such as Earl Thomas and Justin Coleman leaving to sign elsewhere this past spring come to pass.
As for that player the Texans would want on top of a high pick, Houston’s lead running back Lamar Miller tore his anterior cruciate ligament in last weekend’s preseason game at Dallas. He is out for the 2019 season. So the Texans need a replacement, pronto.
The Seahawks aren’t likely to offer Rashaad Penny, not before their first-round pick from last year gets a first chance to play in Seattle’s league-leading rushing offense while fully healthy for an entire season.
C.J. Prosise? Yes, he increased his value to the Seahawks and around the league with his reviving performance last weekend at the Los Angeles Chargers. But would the Texans actually trade their top pass rusher, in a passer-and-sack-the-passer league, and top-overall pick a few years ago to turn their running game over to a former Notre Dame wide receiver who has played in just 16 of 48 regular-season games in his career because of 10 injuries in three-plus years?
No.
Further complicating all this:
Clowney fired his manager, Bus Cook, this week, according to multiple reports. Usually, players who fire an agent have to wait a specified number of days per league rules to hire a new one. But NFL Network reported Clowney, unhappy over the stall in his future, filed the papers to terminate Cook more than five days ago so he can immediately hire a new representative. For now, he’s shopping for agents and top agents are shopping him.
The Texans don’t have a general manager to work with whatever new agent he finds and deal Clowney anywhere. They fired their GM, Brian Gaine, in June. Houston has reportedly decided to go with an unheard of GM by committee through this season.
Does your head hurt yet?
Plus, to avoid that scenario of renting Clowney at a premium trade cost for a few months — to avoid a Sheldon Richardson trap — the Seahawks would have to reach a contract agreement with Clowney after this season. That is likely to cost $20 million or more per year for 2020 and beyond, given the market Clark and Demarcus Lawrence with Dallas reset for defensive ends.
Um, Seattle just decided not to give Clark $20 million per year.
And Clark is younger (by four months) than Clowney. Clark is more accomplished (35 career sacks, to Clowney’s 29). And Clark has proven healthier and/or able to play through injuries. Clark has missed two games in four NFL seasons. Clowney has missed 18 in five years.
In this case, the question really is: Why pay more for Clowney than you weren’t willing to pay for Clark? And after you just paid Wagner instead?
You can argue that Clowney has proven to be better against the run in his career. A top priority of Carroll’s for 2019 has been to get Seattle’s run defense far better than the 4.9 yards per carry it allowed in 2018. That was the worst of the Carroll era.
But defensive ends don’t get paid the megabucks in the NFL to stop the run. It’s to stop the passer.
Yes, you could argue renting Clowney for four months then losing him to another team in free agency could result in a third-round comp pick next spring.
And, judging by the noise heading into Saturday’s cutdown day to set the first roster of the regular season, you will.
With Schneider and Carroll, one can never say never. Their track records of bold moves back to trading a first-round pick for Percy Harvin a half-dozen years ago plus the deals for Richardson and Brown and all this spring’s draft picks have shown that.
What it comes down to is whether Schneider and Carroll believe the Seahawks truly are just one piece, a Jadeveon Clowney, away from going back to the Super Bowl. They thought that when they traded for Richardson, and said so. But that was a Legion of Boom plus Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril as Pro Bowl pass rushers ago.
Yet know this: it’s far more problematic for the Seahawks to trade for Clowney than some of the noise-makers—and perhaps even Clowney himself—want to know.
This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 6:51 AM with the headline "Want Seahawks to trade for Jadeveon Clowney? It’s even more problematic than it may seem."
