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There’s going all-in, and then there’s whatever Nick Caserio, DeMeco Ryans, and the Houston Texans are building on defense.
Houston, already boasting arguably the premier pass rush duo on the sport, in Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter, pulled off an under-the-radar signing on Monday that may wind up being one of the more impactful veteran additions at this late stage before the season kicks off.
When Jadeveon Clowney put pen to paper on a one-year deal, returning to the franchise that selected him No. 1 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft, this wasn’t some sort of ceremonial homecoming. Rather, this was Caserio surgically plugging a hole and making one of the roster’s biggest strengths into one of the deepest pass rush rotations in the NFL.
Clowney’s deal is a one-year pact worth $5 million that can push to $8 million if he reaches certain incentives, underscoring how surgically Caserio and Ryans acted here to add talent without sacrificing significant resources at a position they clearly value above nearly all others.
After all, Anderson and Hunter’s dominance combined for 27 sacks last season, but beyond the top of the depth chart, Houston posted just 20 sacks from the rest of the defense. Further, Clowney’s arrival fills the gap left behind by Derek Barnett (8.5 sacks last season), and Denico Autry (3.5 sacks last season), each currently sitting on the waiver wire.
What Jadeveon Clowney Adds the Houston Texans’ Defense
Clowney, 33, isn’t the game-wrecking force he once was, but he remains a highly productive situational pass rusher, which is likely the role he’ll fill in Ryans’ defense.
Last season with the Dallas Cowboys, Clowney produced 8.5 sacks and 40 quarterback pressures, while posting a 79.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, as the outlet’s 18th-ranked pass rusher.
This isn’t Von Miller hopping on the Ring Chasing Express Line, or Joey Bosa singing for his supper looking for an opportunity; this is the league’s top-ranked defense adding a veteran who still has some gas left in the tank into one of the premier front-sevens in football.
Clowney’s 40 pressures on just 227 pass-rushing snaps gave him an elite 18.1% pressure rate in Dallas, a mark that put him in the top tier of situational pass rushers league-wide.
Dropping that efficiency into 15–20 snaps a game behind Anderson and Hunter is almost unfair to opposing offensive tackles.
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Inside Jadeveon Clowney’s Market
As it turns out, the Texans were far from the only team interested in adding Clowney to their front-seven.
According to Clowney’s agent, Andy Ross, there were more than a handful of teams in the mix for Clowney, before he ultimately chose to return to Houston.
“It was a tough decision,” Ross said in a reel posted to his Instagram. “Jadeveon had a lot of opportunities. Really appreciate Cleveland, as well as Seattle, among another three or four teams that were interested in him. But, he just felt comfortable with Houston, and going home where it all started. Ready to go chase that ring.”
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The allure to chase a Super Bowl, with a roster built to win immediately, for the team that drafted you had to be a strong drawing card for Clowney.
After all, in our annual survey of NFL Executives, Coaches, and Players across the league, the Texans were mentioned both on one ballot as a potential Super Bowl team, and another as a team that could surprise significantly to the upside.
“Don’t sleep on Houston,” a longtime scout told Between The Hashmarks. “Their defense is as legit as there is.”
Clowney’s market, though, is as revelatory for the teams in the mix — including the defending champion Seahawks aiming to retool up front after the departure of Boye Mafe in free agency, as it was for those sitting on the sideline.
It is rather shocking, that in the NFC North, where the Detroit Lions could still benefit from an affordable, competent edge rusher opposite Aidan Hutchinson, or the Green Bay Packers, who desperately need to find production early in the season as Micah Parsons works his way back from a torn ACL, neither of those teams showed any interest in Clowney, according to sources.
I’m told, per league sources, that the Bears only expressed “minimal interest” in Clowney, and that the conversations trended towards the veteran being put on an emergency list to round back to early in the season.
Neither the Packers nor the Bears seem to have done nearly enough to upgrade their pass rush this offseason, an area that the Texans are hellbent on believing can be the difference between making a playoff run and winning a ring.
