Cleveland Clowney
By: Ethan Tabor
The Browns just signed star edge rusher, Jadeveon Clowney to a one year deal. How does this impact Cleveland and who is Jadeveon Clowney?
Clowney was drafted by the Houston Texans as the 1st overall pick in 2014. The hype around him was honestly bigger than our very own Myles Garrett. He had played 3 seasons with the South Carolina Gamecocks, where he was the first freshman to start on the defensive line since 2007. He ended the year as the SEC freshman of the year after posting 36 tackles and 8 sacks to go with it. His sophomore year is what created this so called hype. He set the school record with 13 sacks and 54 tackles with a whopping 23.5 tackles for loss. His fame came in the Outback Bowl where the Gamecocks beat the Michigan Wolverines. The big play being one of the biggest hits ever seen in a college football backfield. Clowney abolished Wolverines running back, Vincent Smith, behind the line of scrimmage, forced the fumble, and recovered it in the 4th quarter leading to a Gamecocks touchdown.
His Junior season was a let down after starting the season as a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. He missed a few games due to injuries and only finished with 3 sacks and 35 tackles. It clearly didn’t matter, as he was slotted on everyone’s draft board as the clear cut number 1 overall pick in 2014.
Clowney’s journey through the NFL has been a roller coaster. He’s only had one season with 16 games played and in that season he posted career high 9.5 sacks, 59 tackles and 3 fumbles recovered. I hear a lot of people talk about his injuries so I want to show you that it’s not as bad as you think. He has played at least 13 games in 5 of his 7 seasons. His rookie season was famously cut short after 4 games and a torn meniscus. In 2020 he had more knee trouble with the Titans that only gave them 8 games of his service. When you consider this is the NFL, he’s definitely on the field more than he’s not, and probably more than the league average.
No sacks in the 8 games with the Titans in 2020 is definitely something that sticks out. Not having more than 9.5 sacks in a season along side J.J. Watt would also depict that he could be overrated. Take all of the negatives and all of those outliers and you still can’t convince me this is a bad move for the Cleveland Browns.
You have a guy who has shown flashes of dominance through out both his college and professional career. A guy at perhaps the most important defensive position in football, who is on the field healthy MOST of the time. A guy who can get this team 8-10 sacks, with the upside to get 15! What I’m most excited about for Clowney is his run stopping ability.
Defensive Ends are notoriously your pass rushers, your pressure on the Quarterback, in today’s game it’s what makes the position so important. Jadeveon is more than capable of pressuring the quarterback, but another piece that is well above average to stop the run goes further than you think on this team. This allows the Browns to run their 3 safety packages that they love, and with the addition of John Johnson (one of the best safeties in football), with already solid Ronnie Harrison and Grant Delpit in the secondary... it makes this defense that much scarier to have them all on the field at once.
You really just need someone that requires attention opposite of Myles Garrett. Myles was 3rd in the league last year with double teams drawn and the Browns newest addition in Jadeveon Clowney ranked 5th on that list. The attention Clowney will require will open things up even more for the force that is Myles Garrett.
The importance of this signing might get lost in the “Clowney is overrated” shuffle. Don’t be fooled though, this is very possibly the best defensive line in the NFL, with a top 5 secondary behind them. These Cleveland Browns are ready to win NOW!