More on Clowney

[D-train]

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter
Though the NFL draft had concluded, Seahawks fans woke up Monday with a feeling of anticipation.

Was it going to be the day something would finally happen with Jadeveon Clowney?

Many wondered if the team’s moves the day before — releasing veteran offensive linemen Justin Britt and D.J. Fluker — foreshadowed a deal with Clowney. The two moves cleared out about $12.2 million in salary-cap space, and some wondered if the Seahawks were prepping to make a major addition.

Monday also marked the end of the date when signings would impact the formula for awarding draft picks as compensation for free agents lost for the 2021 draft, which wouldn’t influence Seattle’s efforts to re-sign Clowney but was thought might impact those other teams around the league trying to land him.

But Monday came and went with no action on the Clowney front, and no apparent indications that there had been any appreciable movement toward a signing.

In fact, one report — from veteran NFL reporter John Clayton of ESPN 710 Seattle, who also is part of the Seahawks’ gameday broadcast team — indicated nothing had changed at all from Clowney’s standpoint.

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Clayton reported Clowney might wait “for months’’ to sign, having not gotten offers close to his original asking price in the $20 million-a-year-plus range, and willing to wait until NFL restrictions related to the novel coronavirus clear up enough to make visits to team facilities to take physicals.

That corroborates what has been the conventional wisdom for a while now. Clowney is willing to play the long game.

Interestingly, Clayton also reported that Seattle’s offer is thought to be in the $15-16 million range and not the $13-15 million that some had speculated.

And indeed, the general thought around the league is that right now, Seattle’s offer to Clowney is likely the best he has. But, it also isn’t quite what he wanted, which has helped lead to the stalemate that currently exists.

So why wouldn’t Clowney just take Seattle’s offer if it’s the best he has? As noted, since it’s not what he really wanted, and because he hasn’t been able to take physicals, he might think a better offer could still come down the road.

Sure, Seattle could put a deadline on Clowney at some point, and as general manager John Schneider said after the draft, the Seahawks did tell Clowney a few weeks into the free-agent signing period that they were going to have to begin filling out the rest of their defensive line, which they have done by signing veterans Bruce Irvin and Benson Mayowa and then taking two other rush ends in the draft (Darrell Taylor and Alton Robinson).

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Both Schneider and coach Pete Carroll indicated that Seattle has yet to give the free agent a deadline, and might never.

“If there’s an opportunity that makes sense, we’ll dive back in and pursue it,’’ Carroll said Saturday of Clowney.

So, the Seahawks will apparently continue to keep tabs on Clowney.

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As Pro Football Talk noted Tuesday, Seattle could have extended a “May 5’’ tender on Clowney, as the New York Giants did Monday with linebacker Markus Golden (that deadline, previously listed as being May 5, had been moved up and passed on Monday. The NFL on Tuesday released the names of players who had not been tendered, with Clowney’s included).

The tender is rarely used — it had last been used in 2017 — and is somewhat complicated. But in essence, it would have meant Seattle would have to pay Clowney $16.5 million in 2020 but that he could continue to negotiate with other teams until July 22 or the beginning of training camp, whichever is later.

By enacting the tender, if he signed elsewhere, then Clowney would count against the comp-pick formula. That wouldn’t have helped Seattle since the Seahawks don’t appear in line to get any comp picks whether they got one for Clowney or not because of the additions they made in free agency.

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But it could be have been viewed as dissuading other teams from making an offer to Clowney since it could impact their comp picks for 2021. That could have been a factor specifically with Tennessee, which has been thought to be a team interested in Clowney. As of now, the Titans are in line for a third-round comp pick in 2021 for the loss of tackle Jack Conklin, and the passing of Monday’s date means the Titans could now sign Clowney and not worry about any impact on that pick.

Pro Football Talk noted that Seattle not wanting to use the tag indicates its offer is less than $16.5 million a year (110 percent of his 2019 salary), the amount the tender would assure Clowney (though it’s also worth remembering any one-year offer means all the cap hit has to be taken in 2020 and Seattle would likely prefer more cap flexibility).

Seattle, though, also promised Clowney when he signed that it would not use a franchise tag on him. Seattle could view this as being similar, though the tender wouldn’t have restricted Clowney other than extending the comp-pick eligibility period. And it could have set a market for him at $16.5 million for the 2020 season.

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But that’s moot now with the passing of the deadline, meaning Clowney is now completely free and clear.

As for the timing of the moves with Britt and Fluker and suddenly clearing up a bunch of cap room, the reality is that Seattle has always had access to the cap space it needed to re-sign Clowney. Seattle can also make other cap-clearing moves like converting some of Russell Wilson’s $18 million salary for 2020 into a bonus, which would spread out the cap hit through the life of the contract and add up to $13 million in cap space.

Seattle on paper has roughly $22 million in cap space after the moves with Fluker and Britt. But in reality it has less. Irvin’s contract, for instance, has yet to go through and is thought to be $3 million at least.

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Seattle also has to carve out $3 million or so for the bonuses for rookie contracts, and all teams have to keep $5 million or so for things such as the practice squad and injured reserve. Seattle also might be on the hook for a $1.2 million injury payment to Britt unless he signs elsewhere since he was released as injured due to the knee injury he suffered last October.

In other words, Seattle would have to make another cap-cutting move if it were to suddenly reach a deal with Clowney.

One other reason for the timing of the Britt/Fluker moves is that Seattle simply needed the roster spots as it opens its offseason program. Teams were able to sign undrafted free agents once the draft ended, and Seattle was reported to have deals with at least 15 players. The cuts Sunday put Seattle’s roster at 76. Teams can have up to 90 total players on their roster. The Seahawks also likely wanted to set the roster as much as possible before beginning the offseason program, which began with some virtual meetings on Monday.

Making the moves then allowed the two vets — each players the Seahawks appreciated greatly — to get into another camp as quickly as possible, and in time for offseason programs to begin.

That happened Tuesday with Fluker as it was reported he will sign with the Baltimore Ravens.

[D-train]

Numbergate

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter
So was there really any significance when Seahawks defensive lineman Jarran Reed tweeted on Wednesday morning that he was going to again wear his old number 90, which last year he had sold to newcomer Jadeveon Clowney?

The obvious immediate implication from the tweet was that Reed at the least was suspecting that Clowney won’t be back, and if the Seahawks were letting him take his old number back that maybe they’d begun to concede he won’t be back, as well.

Reed, though, later clarified he hadn’t meant to imply anything, saying “ya’ll trying to make news out of a jersey number.”

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And maybe there really was nothing to it at all. So much so, that maybe Reed hasn’t even gotten the official say yet that he can change numbers.

That’s the way Seahawks general manager John Schneider portrayed it Thursday during an appearance on ESPN 710 Seattle Thursday, saying he has yet to approve any jersey change.

Asked if everyone was buying into their being a story there, Schneider said: “I think you’re buying into it, because I don’t remember approving that yet, so I don’t know. I don’t know where that came from, but yesterday morning it was definitely, something was going on.”

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And indeed, as we noted in our story Wednesday, Reed’s number remains 91 (the number he switched to so Clowney could wear his preferred 90 a year ago) on the team’s official roster.

Either way, the jersey number change — whether it happens or not — probably is much ado about nothing when it comes to Clowney’s future with Seattle.

Until Clowney signs elsewhere the door will likely remain open for a return to Seattle. And that’s a door that may have to remain open for a while as some around the league think Clowney might not make a decision until right before training camps begin in July (assuming, of course, they begin at all).

Asked about the defensive end spot during his ESPN 710 Seattle appearance Thursday, Schneider largely reiterated what he’d said in comments to the media at large following Saturday’s draft — that Seattle talked to Clowney for a while but eventually had to begin filling out the position regardless of if he returns.

“Well I think they’ve gone very well,” Schneider said of signing free agents Bruce Irvin and Benson Mayowa and drafting Darrell Taylor of Tennessee and Alton Robinson of Syracuse to add to the defensive end/rush end spot. “Especially in trying to hang in there with Jadeveon as well. We gave that a go several times. He’s just in a position he wasn’t ready to make a decision, and that’s good. That’s fine. But we had to keep going and conducting business and I think being able to get Bruce back and Benson back, those guy that’s 14 sacks combined I think (in 2019, with the Panthers and Raiders, and it’s actually 15.5). And then going into the draft and being able to acquire Alton and Darrell was huge for us. We were just really excited. Those guys were players that we had identified that we really wanted at a specific spot that we wanted to acquire.”

Schneider reiterated that the Seahawks had considered drafting Taylor in the first round at 27, where they instead took linebacker Jordyn Brooks of Texas Tech — one of three linebackers taken in the span of six picks in the late first round, with Kenneth Murray of Oklahoma going to the Chargers at 23 and Patrick Queen of LSU going to the Ravens at 28.

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And intriguingly, Schneider essentially said they were likely going to take one of those three linebackers with their first pick — and then hope they could still get Taylor later.

“It was a decision of ‘hey, if one of those linebackers is still there we are not going to back out,”’ Schneider said. “And with Jordyn, everybody had so much conviction. … There were those three linebackers there and all three of them are incredible players. Jordyn was the guy who fit us the best and we had the most buy-in from everybody.”

In fact, there is a thought that if Seattle hadn’t taken Brooks at 27 that the Ravens would have taken Brooks at 28, meaning he would not have been there for Seattle had the Seahawks pulled off a trade with Green Bay to move down to 30 (as explained here). Whether Queen would have been there at 30 is harder to know, though it appears as if Seattle was willing to make the trade with the Packers to move down assuming one of Brooks or Queen would be there.

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Schneider said once they took Brooks that “we knew if we drafted one of the linebackers we were going to have to work our tails off to work back up in the second” to get Taylor in the second round.

Seattle was able to make that happen by pulling off a trade with Jets to deal picks 59 and 101 to get 48 and take Taylor, who had 8.5 sacks last year for the Vols in 13 games but dealt with a stress fracture and had surgery to put a titanium rod in his leg after the season.

“And I’ve got to be honest with you I didn’t feel very good about being able to get back up to acquire Darrell,” Schneider said Thursday. “But I think because of having surgery after the season, not being able to play in the All-Star games or participate in the combine, I think we were really blessed in that regard. He might not like hearing that. But the draft is evaluation and it is also about trying to figure out how to study and plan on where you take guys.”

So, the way Schneider tells it, Seattle was able to wait and plan and get both of the players they wanted with their first two picks.

As for Clowney, the wait continues, as it apparently does for Reed to get his old number back.

[ThePro]

Interesting Schneider said he didn't give permission to change numbers.

[D-train]

Interesting Schneider said he didn't give permission to change numbers.

Definitely makes Reed look like a dumbass.

[D-train]

JS on Softy

[Donn Beach]

I have read the suggestion they might have not used that tender deal to be consistent with them not franchising him, it could be a function of a good relationship, rather than a poor one

The Seahawks still need pass rushers and Jadeveon Clowney knows this. But there might be a more hopeful reason, and this is just a guess, that the Seahawks did not apply the May 5th tender to Clowney. Maybe the team and the player are closer to working out a contract than most think and applying the tender is simply not needed

[Donn Beach]

Cliff Avril on sacks

“I say this all the time when I’m talking about him. Last year was probably the most impressive three-sack season I’ve ever seen from somebody,” he said. “The man only had 3 sacks but when you turn on the film, it’s like ‘wait up, he only had 3 sacks as aggressive and disruptive as he was on that front?’ He is disruptive in the run game, he is disruptive in the passing game, it’s just finishing. That’s the issue with him because he’s never been a 10-sack guy, and yet people love him (and) people want him on (their) team outside of this year, obviously, with free agency.”

“Of course everyone loves sacks, but a coach would prefer a guy who gets you 8 sacks and 45 hits and hurries over a season than a guy that gets you 12 sacks and 15 hits and hurries because you’re not necessarily that productive,” he said. “… Those are the things I look for as a defensive lineman. Guys who get hits on quarterbacks (and) apply pressure all the time, that’s batting balls down. Just putting their footprint on games outside of sacks.”

[D-train]

Cliff Avril on sacks

“I say this all the time when I’m talking about him. Last year was probably the most impressive three-sack season I’ve ever seen from somebody,” he said. “The man only had 3 sacks but when you turn on the film, it’s like ‘wait up, he only had 3 sacks as aggressive and disruptive as he was on that front?’ He is disruptive in the run game, he is disruptive in the passing game, it’s just finishing. That’s the issue with him because he’s never been a 10-sack guy, and yet people love him (and) people want him on (their) team outside of this year, obviously, with free agency.”

“Of course everyone loves sacks, but a coach would prefer a guy who gets you 8 sacks and 45 hits and hurries over a season than a guy that gets you 12 sacks and 15 hits and hurries because you’re not necessarily that productive,” he said. “… Those are the things I look for as a defensive lineman. Guys who get hits on quarterbacks (and) apply pressure all the time, that’s batting balls down. Just putting their footprint on games outside of sacks.”

Taco Charlton is now available. He had 5 sacks and a 51 PFF rating. Clowney had three sacks and an 87 rating. Other than the unlimited marketing opps (Taco Time would probably pay half his salary) I would prefer Clowney. Taco's 5 sacks were probably on unblocked and or missed assignment plays where as Clowney was double team the vast majority of the time.

Softy on KJR does Taco Time spots now. Maybe he and Charlton could team up on ads for two for one Softy Tacos?

[Jack Merridew]

They already had that opportunity with Taco Wallace and blew it.

[D-train]

They already had that opportunity with Taco Wallace and blew it.

hmmm, Snacks Harrison or Tacos? Welcome back stranger!