Off best game of contract year, how does Jadeveon Clowney view his Seahawks future?
Jadeveon Clowney may be worth more now than he’s ever been.
He just played his best in the Seahawks’ biggest game yet this season.
The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end dominated the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive line Nov. 11. Clowney had a sack. He had five of Seattle’s season-high 10 quarterback hits. He forced a fumble. He recovered a fumble.
He thoroughly terrorized Jimmy Garoppolo and the previously unbeaten Niners.
Clowney turned what had been the Seahawks’ potentially fatal flaw—their weak pass rush—into the decisive factor in their overtime win at San Francisco.
Clowney’s latest, greatest performance for Seattle is perhaps the largest reason why the Seahawks (8-2) are in control of their fate for the NFC West division title entering Sunday’s return-from-their-bye game at Philadelphia (5-5).
“I think it’s a breakout game,” coach Pete Carroll gushed of Clowney at San Francisco.
“I just thought he was so impressive all night long. I don’t know how they locked up (trying to block him). They were tackling him. He was just penetrating so fast and so furiously.
“But what a fantastic game. Yeah, we would have liked to see him a little earlier. But if we got going now and this is where we kick into high gear, then that’s a really good defense and we looked pretty good, too.”
Clowney’s contract ends after this season. Does his brilliant game at San Francisco game mean the Seahawks will pay to keep the man who could hold the key to their playoff possibilities?
Seattle has the first chance to re-sign him. Per league rules for players under a franchise tag, teams can begin negotiating on a long-term deal beginning the day after the last game of that regular season. That’s Dec. 30.
The Seahawks could—maybe, should?—be moving now toward getting that done in the window from Dec. 30 to mid-March, when free agency begins. The cost will only rise if Clowney has more games like last week’s against the 49ers.
Again, even if Clowney doesn’t have any more games like his San Francisco one, his price is already going to be high.
Clowney was asked Wednesday if he’s talked with anyone from the Seahawks, particularly Carroll or general manager John Schneider, about his future beyond the current season, even in general terms?
“No,” he said.
Then he added: “I haven’t thought about it. Like I said, my biggest focus is helping win football games.”
The native of Rock Hill, S.C., who played for the University of South Carolina before being drafted by the Houston Texans, has said since the week he got here almost three months ago how much he loves the Seahawks’ atmosphere and the Seattle area.
He reiterated Wednesday what a positive experience this Seahawks one has been for him over the first 10 games of the season. It certainly beats the holdout he was in through the spring and summer in Houston. He was mad at the Texans for not re-doing his contract before this season. He got angrier for Houston putting the restrictive franchise tag on him to keep him from free agency, and not at defensive end but at the less lucrative outside-linebacker position.
“It’s been wild. This whole experience, this whole year has just been mind-blowing for me,” he said. “From being traded up here to being with this team, it’s a whole flip. It’s for the good. It was for the good for me. It’s been coming along good.
“I’m loving what the team had to offer, this whole staff’s got to offer. I’m just trying to fit in, to get in where they want me. I’m just trying to help this team win games, whatever I can do.”
He has three sacks in 10 games, off the pace of his career-high 9 1/2 sacks from 2017. But he’s been among the NFL’s most double-teamed defensive linemen all season.
Still, he’s often blown up blockers and plays. He’s already set a career-high with three forced fumbles. He’s recovered two fumbles.
His interception of a Kyler Murray screen pass and his return for a touchdown changed the September game at Arizona into a Seahawks romp.
Clowney’s been the team’s most dynamic defensive lineman, though, as Carroll mentioned, the Seahawks were hoping for this level of impact earlier this season.
So was Clowney
He’s in the final year of the deal Seattle inherited from Houston when the team traded with the Texans on Sept. 1. That’s an $8 million salary, the franchise tag for 2019 Houston assigned him. He can become a free agent in March. He knows sacks are the most direct way to get paid.
By nature of his skill, relative youth and the value of his pass-rushing position in this pass-happy league, his new contract is going be pricey, no matter who pays it. The cost only went up with his performance in Santa Clara.
The No. 1-overall choice by Houston in the 2014 NFL draft is entering the prime of his career. He is only 26 years old, at a position of supreme importance in the league.
The market for premier pass rushers in the NFL re-set before the season—as the Seahawks know very well.
Demarcus Lawrence got $105 million for five years, $21 million per season, from Dallas in April. He got $65 million guaranteed. Lawrence’s $13 million guaranteed per year over the five years was the highest guaranteed figure for a non-quarterback in NFL history.
Frank Clark noticed. After Lawrence got his from Dallas, Seattle’s leader with a career-high 13 sacks last season wanted $20 million or more from the Seahawks. They said no. They decided they’d rather pay Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner the top contracts at the quarterback and middle-linebacker positions in the league this offseason instead.
That’s what they did. Wilson got a record $140 million. Wagner got $54 million.
Clark got traded to Kansas City. The Chiefs signed him to a $104 million, five-year deal with $62.3 million guaranteed.
Those are the target numbers Clowney will be seeking after this season.
Asked Wednesday if he was concerned or at least curious about what his future will be after 2019, he leaned his big, 6-foot-5 body in to consider the question and his answer.
“I’m not really worried,” he said. “Right now, I’m just focusing on trying to get ready for the Eagles. It’s a lot of football left. I’m really focusing on this season. I don’t care about looking down the road. It’s just one game at a time because we can do something special here.
“I’m not looking past if we get to the Super Bowl or make it to the bowl. It could be something real special. That’s all I’m focusing on. I’m trying to help this team try to find a way to get to the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl.
“That’s what I think everybody’s focusing on right now.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 7:00 AM.
