Jadeveon Clowney saga means pass rush still Seahawks’ top need entering NFL draft
This is absolutely not how John Schneider, Pete Carroll and the Seahawks envisioned entering this draft.
The coronavirus pandemic has stopped in-person scouting and prospects visits in the six weeks leading up to the draft April 23-25. The COVID-19 outbreak is also forcing Schneider, Carroll and the scouts to work separately, at different locations, through the draft itself.
And they still have their Jadeveon Clowney Dilemma.
Schneider and Carroll had planned for weeks ago to either have the three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher re-signed, or have signed another veteran edge rusher to address Seattle’s most pivotal need for 2020 and beyond. But Clowney remains unsigned.
He declined the Seahawks’ offer on a multiyear contract last month. When he didn’t get another team to approach the $20 million or more per year, news leaked last week he was dropping his asking price to $17-18 million per year. He now is apparently considering shorter-term, perhaps one-year deals with the idea to re-try the market this time next year, when presumably there isn’t a pandemic and he isn’t coming off surgery.
The Seahawks eventually need to move on. And they still need to upgrade their pass rush.
Such as in this draft.
To trade, or not to trade
Seattle currently owns the 27th-overall pick in round one April 23. The Seahawks have traded their first pick in eight consecutive drafts, mostly to move down and acquire more choices.
Schneider and Carroll normally don’t rate more than two dozen players as first-round talent in any draft. They aren’t likely to have more than 24 first-rounders rated in this draft that is tilted toward offense, either.
So trading down to the bottom or perhaps out of round one again, to acquire more than the seven picks they currently own, remains Seattle’s most likely move.
But Clowney unexpectedly remaining unsigned keeps an elite pass rusher as this team’s top priority--among its large needs at defensive tackle, offensive tackle and running back.
“Defensively, we were (ranked) 26th (in 2019),” Schneider said in late February at the league’s annual scouting combine.
“We need to improve our pass rush.
“We need to try to get the coaches as many players as we possibly can on both sides of the ball. But, obviously, defensively we were ranked a little bit lower than we were on offense.”
Specifically, the Seahawks’ pass rush was mostly awful last season. It was the reason they again did not have home playoff games, why they again lost on the road in the divisional round of the playoffs. Only Miami had fewer sacks than Seattle’s 23 in 2019.
If the Seahawks don’t improve the pressure and affect on opposing quarterbacks from defensive linemen in 2020, they again won’t go to the Super Bowl—despite $140 million franchise quarterback Russell Wilson still being in his prime.
The Seahawks have whiffed using their top pick on a pass rusher twice in the last three years. Malik McDowell (2017) never played a game for them, or anyone in the NFL. Last year’s top pick L.J. Collier was a healthy scratch for five games in his rookie season.
Plus, this draft isn’t particularly deep in quality edge rushers. With Clowney unsigned and Seattle still needing immediate-impact guys to sack quarterbacks, would Schneider finally do what he’s never done in a decade leading the Seahawks drafts? Would he actually trade up in round one?
Don’’t count on it, even as desperate as his team’s need it at pass rush.
The targets
Schneider is unlikely to part with enough high-value assets to trade up far enough in the first round to get one of the few top edge rushers in this draft, certainly not high enough to get Chase Young of Ohio State.
But K’Lavon Chaisson of LSU could be available at 27.
Chaisson played just one game in his 2018 college season then reconstructive knee surgery. He played through an ankle injury last season. He chose to skip workouts at the NFL combine this winter. Then the coronavirus hit. It wiped out his pro day and pre-draft workouts for teams.
Some see Chaisson, who had 9 1/2 sacks in 24 games at LSU, as only an outside speed pass rusher, not the every-down end that can play the run and rush from any place on the line. Those are the skills that make Clowney so much more valuable than just his sack numbers.
Chaisson calls the knock on him a misconception.
“Exactly. I’m saying, like, we watch tape and I’m putting a bunch of guys on their tail,” he said at the combine. “I mean, I’ve got some power behind me, too. A lot of guys, when they say I’m just speed, they obviously don’t watch film. I mean, that’s something I know I’m definitely more than a one-dimensional player. I’ve got speed, power, finesse.
“Whatever you want, I’ve got.”
What he’s got would entice the Seahawks to draft him at 27th, instead of trading down as usual.
That includes confidence.
“I’m going to be honest. I’m actually the most valuable player in the draft, when it comes down to it. We all know that,” Chaisson said.
“When you hire someone do you want to hire someone who speaks one language, or do you want to hire someone that speaks three languages? I speak three languages. I do pass rush. I can drop in coverage and cover anybody you want me to cover. I can play the run. And no offensive lineman has ever just moved me off the ball, or bullied me. So I feel like that’s what makes me more dimensional—and a more valuable player than anybody else in the draft.”
Julian Okwara from Notre Dame may also be available at 27, and could be later if the Seahawks indeed trade down again. At 6 feet 4, Okwara has the size Carroll loves in his Leo defensive-end pass-rushing place.
“Leo” is the weakside end to the open, wider side of the field in Seattle 4-3 defense. That’s the spot Ziggy Ansah failed in last season in his only year with Seattle. Ansah, the Seahawks’ splashy free-agent signing for up to $9 million last spring, had just 2 1/2 sacks in 11 games for the Seahawk amid injuries in 2019. He’s unsigned as a free agent.
The Seahawks last month brought back their former number-one pick Bruce Irvin and 2013 rookie Benson Mayowa to be rotational options at the Leo end. But Irvin turns 33 in November, plus he and Mayowa, who turns 29 in August, are both in on only one-year deals.
Irvin and Mayowa are not the long-term answers at the Leo end spot. Okwara could be.
So could Jon Greenard from Florida. Some see him as a second-round pick, which makes him another pass-rush option for Seattle if (or when) Schneider trades down out of round one again.
For middle rounds, Tennessee’s Darrell Taylor (8 1/2 sacks last year) and North Carolina’s Jason Strowbridge has the speed off the ball and size Carroll likes. Taylor is 6-3, Strowbridge 6-4. But, again, the quality of outside pass rushers drops off quickly after the first round.
TOP EDGE RUSHERS IN THIS NFL DRAFT
1. Chase Young, Ohio State
2. Yetur Gross-Matos, Penn State
3. K’Lavon Chaisson, LSU
4. A.J. Epenesa, Iowa
5. Jon Greenard, Florida
At defensive tackle, Seattle re-signed Jarran Reed last month for two years and $23 million. Carroll believes his second-round pick from 2016 is more the 10 1/2-sack stud he was rushing next to Frank Clark in 2018 than the two-sack man he was after missing the first six games of 2019 while on NFL suspension for alleged domestic assault.
Reed will be 29 when his contract ends. The Seahawks need more depth at defensive tackle. And they’ve yet to have a consistent, younger nose tackle who can plug gaps and stuff the run since Brandon Mebane left for the Chargers before the 2016 season.
There are two marvels at defensive tackle in this year’s draft, both of whom are likely to be gone well before Seattle picks or trades down in the first or second round: Derrick Brown from Auburn and Javon Kinlaw of South Carolina. They may go in the top 15.
But Ross Blacklock is the kind of tackle Carroll loves. The college defensive linemate at Texas Christian of L.J. Collier, the Seahawks’ first-round pick last year, runs sideline to sideline with relentless drive like Seattle’s Poona Ford.
The Seahawks had a formal interview with Blacklock in Indianapolis at the combine. He is the son of former Harlem Globetrotters basketball player (for 2,500 games in the 1970s and 80s) and coach Jimmy Blacklock. The younger Blacklock said Seattle’s was one of 21 formal sit-downs he had with teams, starting from about the minute he got to the scouting extravaganza.
“It’s like speed dating,” he said.
Those interviews take on added meaning this year.
The coronavirus wiped out all pre-draft travel for prospects to the 30 visits each team gets with players before a normal draft. And the NFL prohibited teams from sending scouts and coaches to prospects pro days that got canceled, anyway. So what the Seahawks and all teams got at the combine is the last bits of first-person information they have on who they will be drafting this month.
A torn Achilles tendon that kept Blacklock from playing his 2018 college season may worry teams enough that he falls to late in round one or perhaps early in round two. So might reported low SPARQ scores (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness) that some analytic-heavy teams rely upon.
But with how he rebounded with an All-Big 12 Conference season in 2019 that including nine tackles for loss and 3 1/2 sacks, Blacklock isn’t likely last much longer than into round two.
Marlon Davidson from Auburn is likely intriguing to the Seahawks. He played more outside as an end in college. But many around the NFL see him as a 4-3 tackle inside in a pro defense. Carroll and Schneider target versatility in all their linemen.
TOP DEFENSIVE TACKLES IN THIS DRAFT
1. Derrick Brown, Auburn
2. Javon Kinlaw, South Carolina
3. Neville Gallimore, Oklahoma
4. Jordan Elliott, Missouri
5. Marlon Davidson, Auburn
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 8:02 AM.
