Jadeon Clowney. No longer a Panther. There was a, uh, kind of flurry of moves for the Panthers, roster moves today, now that they’ve they’ve settled in kind of post draft. Um, the two most interesting slash talked about are Jadeveon Clowney being released, um, which surprised some. I, you ready for this? You’re ready for a little inception. I was surprised that people were surprised. So the surprise level was was too, um. And then there was the news that Jonathan Brooks, 2nd round pick from not this most recent draft, last year’s draft, running back out of Texas, uh, has been put on the physically unable to perform list, affectionately known as the Pup list, uh, and, and that means he will not play at all in 2025. That is the least surprising news cause he retore his ACL in week 14 last year, and, uh, which makes it his second tear in the last 13 months, like over a 13 month period. Um, so he’s not playing this year, which isn’t surprising, but it is sad. It is just, it stinks, yeah, it’s just me, mm. That’s what that is. Um. I’ll quickly address the Jonathan Brooks one before we come back to Clowney, just cause I think it’s quicker. Um, for Jonathan Brooks, I’m to the point, I’m not banking on or planning for. Any positive Contribution on an NFL game football field from Jonathan Brooks. I am hoping for a return to his former self, but I will consider anything he is able to give you on game day from a production standpoint, even if it is in 2026 or 2027. I’m considering that just a, that’s bonus. That’s pleasant surprise. Uh, but I’m making sure my my running back room is 100% ready to roll if he never returns to his former self, just because the nature of the, the two injuries, he’s gonna have gone, I mean, essentially 2.5, 3 years without playing football by the next time he’s able to get onto a game field, uh, at the earliest, so. That right there is enough for me to go. Hopefully, Trevor Etien is really good because they drafted him in the 4th round and and he’s more likely to be available. Uh, when it comes to the edge rush. Jadeveon Clowney, uh, He is on the way out. From a personal perspective, that kind of stinks too, because he’s, he’s, you know, South Carolina guy, Panthers were his, you know, quote unquote hometown team. Uh, it was, it was a cool video when he signed last year. Like you could tell there was a connection there and he liked being around it. Um, but from a football perspective and from what I call windows, uh, Last season, I believe was a necessity. It was a we need NFL players that we can put out there and and there weren’t a ton available for the price they were looking for, uh, and, and It was, it was a business deal, right? It was like, hey, you give us a year, maybe 2, we’ll find some time for you on the field, but let’s be real, by the time we’re ready to compete, your window of being an impact player is going to be likely closed. So this is just kind of a, you get to stay close to home, we get a guy that we can plug in for a year, uh, so we don’t have to overwork some guys that are just, just aren’t ready yet. And and now they want to go get their guys, and they in a lot of ways they have, right? If you look at the top 4 edge rushers. Uh, for the, the, the Panthers right now. Um, I won’t, I won’t put them in order. I’ll just read names based on when they were acquired. How about that? Uh, DJanum. Patrick Jones Nick Skorton, Princely Uman Melen. That is a player that was signed last offseason, uh, and then didn’t play for the 1st 6 games, something along those 8 games, uh, and was a decent sized contract for a free agent. Uh, Pat Jones, who was a free agent this year, just a handful of weeks, maybe a couple of months ago, uh, and then their their 2nd and 3rd round pick and scoring and Uma Melen. These are Dan Morgan’s guys. Right, I, they were not. Settling. They were not, uh, hey, we, we just need to fill a role. These were guys that were picked by by Dan Morgan and, and I think that makes sense. Right now he’s starting to have the roster that he envisioned. When, when he first took over the roster, you know, there there there were uh Let me think like, there were 1015, 30 holes in the roster and he only had 15 caps to close them and he had to pick and choose which ones he he capped, and then the rest he had to makeshift away. I think, I think Clowney was part of that makeshift. And then on top of that, the the price was prohibitive. If Clowney was the exact player that he is, exact production, exact, uh, maybe, you know, he had 5.5 sacks, but did a good job stopping the run and, and, and, you know, kind of run block win rate and some of, if he did that exact same stuff but cost a third as much, I, I don’t think he’s cut. But the fact of the matter is they could either cut like 3 other dudes or cut Jadeveon Clowney and get that cap savings back and cover a bunch of other, you know, finances. So, you know, there, there’s, there’s that going on. So speaking of that, to the, the financial part of that, uh, Mike Hay, the Charlotte Observer put out that it’s $7.78 million in cap savings for this year, which covers the cost of that rookie draft class in terms of cat pit for this upcoming year. So by letting Clowney go, who wasn’t super productive last year, allows you to have that cap flexibility to do any of the other stuff that you mentioned, but If you look at Clowney’s contract, it was a 2 year, $20 million contract, $8 million signing bonus. Basically, it was a one year deal and if you exceeded our expectations, we’ll keep you around. Maybe we’ll even guarantee that money for you. But he was expendable. And, and the other thing is, and, and we’ve talked about this with other players, um, they had a plan for the draft, and I believe the plan was if, uh, basically Mason Graham. Maybe an offensive tackle. I, I don’t know. Maybe they were high on Campbell or Membo, uh, and TMA, Teddero McMillan. I think if those 3 or 4 guys were gone by 8, I do think they would have taken an edge rusher. But if one of those 4 were there, They were gonna take, take that person. Uh, and then they were betting on their projections for how the draft would go, that they would be able to get edge rushers that they, they like in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round, probably 2 in those 3 rounds. Uh, and it worked out, right? They got Skorton, who obviously they like in the 2nd round, and they got Umayeen in the 3rd, who obviously they like, and, and then they get to turn to Clowney and go, yeah, it worked out, we don’t need you. If, if it, if they missed. Their projection of the draft, right, cause they thought and and Dan Morgan told us on this show when, when, when he stopped by a couple of days ago, uh, he said they saw the draft as stacked at outside linebacker and edge all the way through the 4th round. If there was a ridiculous run on edges and and they couldn’t get their hands on some of that depth. You could have, you could have kept Clowney around. But when as soon as as soon as you draft the two in the top 3 rounds, he’s now expendable. Um, as far as looking at which players this ups their responsibility, I’m now expecting more from Scororton cause Scororton brings, uh, especially when he’s at the top end of his, his weight, he brings a little bit more stoutness. Uh, Uman Melen is is more of a a speed guy, at least that’s what he’s been in college, so The the most underrated part of Clowney is his, his edge fit, right? That or his run fit. He’s he’s People get on about the sack numbers, but the one thing he’s always kind of done is, is graded out well against the run. I think that’s where Skorton and and DJanum have to be really, really good, uh, and then Jones and Uma Yellen will be what they are, which is less of a run. They, you know, they, they tend to the other way or trended the other way, I should say, towards being sack artists. So, I think I’m, you know, vote of confidence for scoring. I’ll tell you that much. Uh, those two rookies are gonna have to play in some way, shape, or form now. Can’t be like, all right, we’re gonna rotate you in with Clowney and Juan in the ceiling. No, you got to play a lot more significant snaps now. And I, I also, because of Clowney, and I, I, I did this with Brent Burns the other day, uh, I love when older guys make news because then I go, I go look at their, their draft class and just go guys naming dudes. Uh, there are some still making an impact like Mike Evans was in that class, Khalil Mack was in that class, uh, no, I more recent than that, uh, I think it was like 2013 2014. I didn’t write down which draft it was, um. But do you know who else was in his class? Who’s that? Blakey Bortles, Johnny Manziel? Eric Ebron for my UNC fans out there was in the same draft class as Jadeveon Clowney. 2014 class. Haha Clinton Dick. Haha. There’s a name. Ha haleixx, the guy with two hyphens in his name. Aaron Donald, Kelvin Benjamin for the Panther fans. Taylor Leuan, Devonte Freeman, there it’s. If you’re like, well, you know, he’s still got a lot of pop left in his legs, he, he might. He also Usually better to bail one year too early than pay a guy one year too late, uh, even if you think he was impactful last year, I say he was solid last year. Um, the other thing I’ll, I’ll give about this is, so you mentioned Eric Ebron, right? North Carolina, yep, yeah, I mean that’s Ebron feels like from another generation. Yeah uh. Teddy Bridgewater. Hey, shout out, shout out, uh, to glove Teddy, uh. What was I gonna say, oh, the other thing about Jadeveon Clowney, we did this when he when the signing took place. Some guys are just this way. He’s a really good second fiddle in an edge rush. The all of his best sack seasons are when he was opposite somebody who had a bunch more, whether it was, uh, uh, Oh, what’s the guy’s name from from the Ravens? Uh, Maambuque, is it that’s not right. Matebuque, there you go. Uh, whether it was him, whether it was Watt, whether it was some of these other guys, his best seasons came when someone else was the main attraction. He was this past year for, for all intents and purposes, like circled on the Edge Rush scouting report, and I just don’t think that, uh, that fits his game. So if he can hit the market and go find, uh, you know, go play opposite of a more established edge. He could have a big season and the Panthers fans would be like, why didn’t we keep him? Well, it’s because it’s easier when when somebody else is attracting all the the eyeballs. He’s not as good as good at, you know, dealing with chips from running backs and everything else. He’s good at the one on ones, uh. But no, it’s, it’s He’s 30 something years old, their their window, it it just makes sense. You wish him luck, send him on his way.
