Where Seahawks stand with Jadeveon Clowney, and reviewing the team’s free agency so far
Three days and two waves into the NFL free-agency period, what have the Seahawks accomplished?
It only feels like nothing. That is, to all of you justifiably wanting pass rushers—and waiting on Jadeveon Clowney.
Seattle began Thursday the way it began Wednesday, Tuesday, the week, the month—heck, the offseason: waiting for Clowney to decide if he wants to stay or go. The three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher has been weighing offers from multiple teams, believed to include the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans, in addition to the Seahawks.
It’s become obvious Clowney has not received the top-of-the-market offers he’s been seeking. That is, at or above the $21 million per season the Colts gave premier pass rusher Deforest Buckner this week in a new deal, after San Francisco traded him to Indianapolis for a first-round draft choice.
Why are other teams refusing to give that money to Clowney?
He has only stayed healthy enough to play all 16 games of a regular season once in his six NFL seasons. That was 2017 with Houston. He’s never had a double-digit sack season. His 2019 ended with him missing three of the Seahawks’ final five regular-season games because of a sports hernia he played through in the postseason. He had surgery for it in January.
Teams want to know exactly where he is physically. But they cannot fly him to their team headquarters for exams by their doctors right now. The NFL has banned free agents flying to other teams because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week and the free-agent market has broken in all the ways Seattle needed it to in order to re-sign Clowney. He isn’t getting the money elsewhere he was seeking. He is the last, top, younger sack man remaining on the market, after Dante Fowler agreed to his free-agent contract with Atlanta Wednesday. And he is faced with choosing between a known team, locker room, system and style he has said he loves in Seattle and starting over in an unknown system for less money than he thought he’d be getting.
The Seahawks have none of the concerns the rest of the league does.
They saw last season, after his trade from the Texans Sept. 1, how easily he meshed with Seattle’s older and younger players. They saw how disruptive he was when he was healthy—and when he wasn’t. His best game and best by a Seahawks defensive lineman in years was in November in Seattle’s upset win at previously undefeated San Francisco. He mauled the 49ers’ offensive line and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. He was the reason the Seahawks sacked Garoppolo five times, hit him 10 times, and Seattle won to briefly surge to the top of the NFC.
Clowney first felt the sports-hernia injury in the first half of that exquisite performance.
But even the Seahawks’ love for Clowney has a ceiling cost. For Seattle, that’s likely below $20 million per year.
I‘ve gotten the distinct sense talking to Clowney multiple times about it since September that he really wants to stay in Seattle. Money talks, obviously. But that money seems so close now, and with no one blowing him away with offers, signs still point to him re-signing.
It would be huge for Carroll’s stated number-one goal for this offseason: addressing the weak pass rush.
The signings so far
While they wait on Clowney, the Seahawks re-signed defensive tackle Jarran Reed on a two-year deal for $23 million.
They brought back 2012 first-round pick Bruce Irvin following his 8 1/2-sack year in 2019 for Carolina. He turns 33 this season.
Seattle signed three offensive linemen in 24 hours, two of them right tackles. That all but pushed Germain Ifedi, the team’s starting right tackle the last four years, out of town. Brandon Shell has a chance to be Ifedi’s replacement at right tackle. The Seahawks gave the former New York Jet, the great-nephew of Oakland Raiders Hall of Famer Art Shell, a two-year deal worth up to $11 million on Wednesday.
Then they agreed on a contract with Cedric Ogbuehi. The former first-round pick by Cincinnati started at right tackle for the Bengals. But he hasn’t started a game for anyone since 2017. He could be Seattle’s new George Fant: a versatile blocker who can backup at both right and left tackle and has been an extra, blocking tight end on running downs.
The third new offensive lineman is B.J. Finney. He agreed to a deal Tuesday. He played right guard, center and left guard for Pittsburgh. He started two games at center last season for the Steelers.
That brings to mind what the Seahawks think of Justin Britt for 2020. Their starting center had his 2019 end in October because of torn knee ligaments. He’s on his way back from that, but has a huge, $11.4 million salary-cap charge for this year. He is a candidate for a renegotiation to a more team-friendly cap number, if not to be released.
The new linemen, and Irvin, fit Seattle’s penchant for waiting out the splashy, expensive first wave of free agency and targeting shorter-term, lower-cast deals in the secondary waves.
Trufant won’t be coming home
Another potential target for such a secondary deal for Seattle is no longer an option. Desmond Trufant signed with Detroit for two years and $21 million Wednesday night. So much for the Tacoma native who went and played for Wilson High School and Washington State returning to the area to play for the Seahawks—and challenge Tre Flowers at cornerback and Ugo Amadi at nickel defensive back.
Coach Pete Carroll said last month at the league scouting combine he is seeking increased competition at both spots.
Thompson being shown out of town
The Seahawks appear to be creating room in their defensive secondary. Not surprisingly, they have given safety Tedric Thompson permission to seek a trade. That’s according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Finding someone who will want to trade for him will be Thompson’s challenge.
Seattle’s fourth-round pick in 2017 began last season as depart All-Pro Earl Thomas’ replacement at free safety. In his first game, he mistimed his jump on a pass shot-putted by Andy Dalton. Bengals receiver John Ross ran behind Thompson for a touchdown. His misplays continued from there.
By late October, the Seahawks traded with Detroit to get standout afety Quandre Diggs. Thompson, seeing where his playing time was going, opted then to have season-ending surgery. His shoulder labrum had been troubling him for a while.
Diggs returns for 2020 after reforming the back of the defense. He’s a ball hawk with Thomas’ like aggressiveness, smarts, instincts and range from sideline to sideline. The Seahawks just don’t need Thompson anymore.
Good luck finding a trade suitor for a veteran who failed, was benched and replaced by the team that drafted him and is coming off season-ending shoulder surgery.
And then there’s Ngakoue
The first three days had it requisite nonsense, as every NFL free-agent start does. Wednesday, we entered the decipher-the-canted-Instagram-photo-guess-which-airport phase of the market frenzy.
Ngakoue is Jacksonville’s star pass rusher. He has 37 1/2 sacks in four years for the Jaguars. They put their franchise tag on him to keep him from leaving in free agency. He has declared he will not negotiate a long-term deal with the Jags, that he wants to leave.
The Seahawks are believed to be interested in exploring a possible trade for him, which a team can do with tagged players.
It would be the reverse Frank Clark for Seattle, the opposite of the team trading Clark, its leading pass rusher, last offseason to Kansas City after the Seahawks tagged him.
Trading for Ngakoue would mean the Seahawks inheriting the franchise-tag cost for him, a guaranteed salary-cap charge of $19.3 million. He turns 25 at the end of this month, two years younger than Clowney. That $19.3 million is about the ballpark of average value the Seahawks may be offering Clowney. But a longer-term deal for Clowney would be at a more team-friendly cap charge for this year, because Seattle could prorate his signing bonus over the life of the deal for cap purposes.
So trading for Ngakoue, giving up high draft pick(s) and perhaps a player plus having that $19.3 million, is far less preferable to what remains their top goal of this offseason.
Re-signing Clowney.
