How Deforest Buckner’s new deal with Colts re-sets NFL mark for Jadeveon Clowney, Seahawks
The price for Jadeveon Clowney keeps going up.
Perhaps out of the Seahawks’ range.
Just like it did for Frank Clark with Seattle around this time last year, the first day of free-agent shopping in 2020 re-set the free-agent market for top NFL defensive linemen and pass rushers.
NFC West-rival San Francisco traded Deforest Buckner and his 19 1/2 sacks the last two seasons to Indianapolis Monday for the Colts’ first-round choice in next month’s draft.
More applicable to the Seahawks: Buckner has already agreed to a new contract that will pay him $21 million per season to play for Indianapolis. That’s according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter Monday. That makes Buckner the second-highest paid defensive tackle in the league, behind only the Rams’ Aaron Donald.
And that takes another potential top pass rusher off the market—at a price likely more than the Seahawks are willing to give Clowney.
It does, however, take one of Clowney’s potential bidders out of the market for him. Seattle won’t be bidding against the Colts for him.
The three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher began fielding offers from other teams Monday, the first day of the league’s two-day negotiating period for unrestricted free agents. The market for them to sign deals begins with the new league year Wednesday at 1 p.m.
Clowney had been seeking around the $20 million-plus Clark got from Kansas City after the Seahawks traded him there last spring, and Demarcus Lawrence got in the 2019 offseason from Dallas.
Buckner’s new deal with the Colts re-sets the floor for Clowney above that.
Seattle has been trying in earnest for weeks to entice Clowney to re-sign to a multi-year contract. The push began in late February when general manager John Schneider and his staff met with the agent for the Seahawks’ top pass rusher at the league’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Since then, events around the league have conspired against the Seahawks keeping Clowney.
Jacksonville on Friday used its franchise-tag designation for 2020 on defensive end Yannick Ngakoue. That kept the Pro Bowl defensive end who has 29 1/2 sacks the last three seasons from going onto the free-agent market.
The Steelers used their franchise tag to keep sack man Bud Dupree from free agency on Monday. The Buccaneers did the same with pass rusher Shaquil Barrett.
Chris Jones is another defensive lineman who would attract top-of-the-market money in free agency. He had nine sacks in 13 games last season for Kansas City. But the Chiefs are expected to use their franchise tag on him, too.
The result: Four players who would have likely commanded more than or nearly as much as Clowney in free agency aren’t going to be in it. Clowney, barring a last-hour deal with Seattle before Wednesday, is. So Clowney at age 27 with three Pro Bowls and the first-overall draft choice in 2014 in his pedigree becomes the top free-agent pass rusher available.
Clowney said following Seattle’s playoff loss at Green Bay in January he wants to return to the Seahawks and that he loves the team, its locker room and the city. But he also emphasized he wants to get paid, handsomely, and by a championship-contending team.
“I want to get that Super Bowl by any means,” the three-time Pro Bowl defensive end said moments after his contract ended with the Seahawks’ 28-23 loss at Green Bay in the NFC divisional playoff game.
“Who’s going to get me there? I’m not looking to get on no sorry team for no money.”
Schneider and coach Pete Carroll set the Seahawks’ top objective this offseason as improving the pass rush. Only Miami had fewer sacks last season, which for Seattle ended in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs again.
Clowney is the centerpiece to Seattle having a strong pass rush. Any Plan B for it in free agency of next month’s draft will be at less cost—a Seahawks staple this time of year—but for less proven production and as more much of an unknown.
I asked Schneider at the league’s scouting combine last month if he felt because Clowney has said he loves Seattle and the Seahawks’ locker room whether the GM feels the team has a “home-field advantage” in re-signing him, perhaps in lieu of a few million more dollars.
“Yeah, you’d like to think so. We know his body. We know how to take care of him,” Schneider said, referring to Clowney’s surgery to repair a sports hernia in January.
“And then also, just the fact that just the stadium that we play in. One of the primary reasons we were able to recruit Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril was their ability to jump off the ball in that stadium and playing there eight times. We lost four at home. Can’t be doing that again. But just to have that noise, those guys, the real good pass rushers know it and they have that snap anticipation.”
It’s worth remembering why the Seahawks aren’t using their franchise tag to keep Clowney. They agreed not to last summer when they traded with Houston for him days before the season began. It is basically an unofficial gentleman’s agreement; it’s not enforceable by the league’s collective bargaining agreement, per se. But the Seahawks are honoring it, to maintain the attractiveness and players-first reputation they have around the league among veteran players.
It’s keeping up their rep on the NFL street. If not their chances to have their top pass rusher remain in the Seahawks’ unit most important to their 2020 season.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:45 PM.
