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They used every trick in the book, but the New Orleans Saints weren’t able to land free agent pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney, who instead reached a contract agreement with the Tennessee Titans. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported that the Saints stretched their ambition to its limits and attempted a sign-and-trade deal to acquire Clowney. Unable to match Tennessee’s contract offer totaling $15 million, the Saints approached another team with more salary cap space, proposing that they sign Clowney and take on the bulk of his cap hit, then trade him to New Orleans in exchange for a second-round draft pick and player to offset the costs.
It would have been bold. These sort of maneuvers are more common in the NBA, but they aren’t really allowed per NFL bylaws (or at least in such an obvious fashion). The Cleveland Browns once agreed to accept a second-round pick in exchange for taking on Houston Texans quarterback Brock Osweiller’s $16 million salary, for example. Other trades have been made that had one team take on a portion of salary to help facilitate the deal, but this apparently crossed a line.
But it all fell apart. Rapoport and Pelissero’s report adds that the NFL office wasn’t likely to approve the deal, interpreting it as a violation of rules preventing cash-for-pick trades.
Then again, that’s just their source’s belief. The deal didn’t actually go in front of NFL executives, and similar arrangements had been worked out before. Without putting it to the test, it’s impossible to say whether it would have been blocked by the league.
At the end of the day, fitting Clowney’s cap hit on the books was just too complicated a process for the Saints to pull off cleanly. It certainly didn’t help that he was eager to go play for Mike Vrabel again after having his best production under Vrabel’s coaching in Houston. There may be a parallel timeline where the Saints made this happen, but in our reality, it’s time to move on.
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