Jadeveon Clowney remains conspicuously available on the NFL’s free agent market, and at least one national reporter believes the Cleveland Browns remain very interested in the former Seahawks defensive end.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports joined the Pat McAfee Show and weighed in on the ongoing linkage between the high-profile defensive end and the new-look Browns.
“I still think it’s the Browns,” Robinson leads off with when asked who would have the most interest in Clowney.
Speaking as if he were Clowney and coming off a failed one-year experiment in Seattle, where he played under the franchise tag after forcing a trade out of Houston, Robinson notes the difficulty in the sales pitch to teams,
“When are you going to have the 12-to-14 sack season? You haven’t done that. We’re not going to pay you like you’re a 15-sack guy. You want $20 million (a year), that’s a 12-to-15 sack guy every single year.”
Clowney has never had a double-digit sack season (career-high of 9.5 in 2017) and bagged just three in 13 games with the Seahawks. Robinson posits that Clowney could once again be forced to take a one-year “prove-it” deal, and that’s where the Browns come in.
“I think the Browns are interested in (Clowney) longer term than that,” Robinson opined.
The Browns do have considerable salary cap room in 2020 to lock up Clowney for one of those prove-it deals. Signing him to a longer deal would require salary concessions on Clowney’s part or sacrificing elsewhere on the roster in Cleveland.
The segment involving Clowney’s fate and the possible Browns connection is available on McAfee’s YouTube channel: