Jadeveon Clowney reportedly drops his asking price down to where Seahawks apparently are
Once again, time appears to be on the Seahawks’ side, not Jadeveon Clowney’s.
Not if he wants to maximize money in his new contract, that is.
As the NFL free agency period enters its second month and Clowney remains unsigned, the three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher is dropping his asking price—down to the range Seattle is believed to have already offered him. Clowney is now asking for $17-18 million per year, according to ESPN’s Dianna Russini.
“I am told by several sources the asking price has been moved off that $20mil+ number and it’s closer to $17-18mil,” Russini wrote Wednesday. “This could spark more interest.”
Yes, it could. That’s what Clowney and his agent are hoping for.
The only other team confirmed to be interested enough in what Clowney is seeking to have contacted his agent about a new deal is Tennessee. As The News Tribune reported March 19, the Titans have “touched base” with Clowney’s representatives, as have the New York Jets.
Titans general manager Jon Robinson told reporters in Nashville that on Wednesday, per Teresa Walker of The Associated Press. Jets general manager Joe Douglas told reporters that in New York, per NBC Sports.
So far, the Titans and Jets are like the rest of the league in the heart of the Clowney matter: they haven’t given him an offer he’d want to sign. So, for now, the Seahawks appear to be what they’ve been the last three weeks: his best offer.
The Seahawks are believed to have proposed to him $18.5 million per season on a multiyear deal, as first reported by Sports Illustrated’s Corbin Smith. That was last month. That was when the 27-year-old Clowney was determined to become one of the highest-paid edge rushers in the NFL, at the top of the market at $20-plus million per year.
No team met Clowney’s goal.
The coronavirus pandemic has shut down NFL team facilities. The crisis has halted free agents traveling to team doctors for first-hand physical examinations. Teams thinking of offering Clowney anywhere near the money he is seeking want to have their own doctors examine him. Other teams want to determine the feasibility of giving big bucks to a player who is coming off a sports-hernia surgery in January. Clowney has completed an entire season injury free just once in six years in the NFL.
No team’s doctors know Clowney’s current health and recovery plan following his latest surgery other than Seattle’s. They don’t need to fly him in from where he’s been staying in Houston, where he played until his trade to the Seahawks Sept. 1, to know that.
Each day that passes without an attractive, competing offer increases the likelihood Clowney ultimately decides re-signing with Seattle is his best option. That’s either at the $18.5 million per season in the multiyear deal the team offered him weeks ago, or less (perhaps $14-15 million) on a one-year deal. That would put Clowney back on the free-agent market in 2021. He would be betting on himself, in that scenario, on a dominant, injury-free 2020.
Leaking that he is dropping his asking price is an attempt to attract more competing, longer-term offers.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 12:27 PM.
