Panthers<\/a>, which he signed in 2024, was for two years and $20 million. Carolina moved on after one season, but it gives you an idea of how much he\u2019s going to cost.<\/p>\nThis isn\u2019t going to be some cheap, veteran minimum signing. Clowney knows he can still play and no matter how old they get, productive pass rushers still command a good chunk of money.<\/p>\n
If the Rams do sign Clowney, it could hinder their ability to trade for a player like Jalen Ramsey.<\/p>\n
Pro: He\u2019d bring a veteran presence to a young group<\/p>\n
Jared Verse, Byron Young, Josaiah Stewart, Brennan Jackson and Nick Hampton are projected to be the top five edge rushers for the Rams this season. Young is the oldest at 27 and all five of them are entering their first, second or third season in the NFL.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an incredibly young and inexperienced group, which isn\u2019t a bad thing. They\u2019re all energetic and hungry, which gives the defense an edge. However, it could benefit them to have a 32-year-old veteran like Clowney, who\u2019s played on a bunch of different teams in several different schemes.<\/p>\n
He could give them some guidance and advice as a veteran pass rusher, similar to the way Von Miller did in 2021 when the Rams won the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Overall, the Rams\u2019 defense is extremely young so having a guy like Clowney in the locker room could help everyone in the building.<\/p>\n
Con: He\u2019ll take snaps away from younger guys<\/p>\n
If the Rams want to keep developing their young edge rushers, perhaps signing Clowney wouldn\u2019t be the best idea. They wouldn\u2019t bring him in to ride the bench, which means he\u2019s going to play meaningful snaps and likely be at least third on the depth chart.<\/p>\n
After committing three top-100 picks to Verse, Young and Stewart, the Rams may want to just give them as many snaps as possible. Signing Clowney would take playing time away from probably all of them except Verse, just for the sake of giving him opportunities to rush the passer.<\/p>\n
As we\u2019ve seen in recent years, the Rams have gotten early contributions from their rookies and inserting Clowney into the mix could hinder the growth of their young defenders.<\/p>\n
Pro: He\u2019d allow every edge rusher to stay fresh<\/p>\n
The Eagles showed in the playoffs \u2013 and specifically in the Super Bowl \u2013\u00a0that the more pass rushers you have, the better your defense will be. That sounds obvious, but a lot of teams don\u2019t rotate their pass rushers as much as the Eagles did in the postseason. They kept throwing waves of defenders at Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, which they were able to do because of how deep their D-line was.<\/p>\n
The Rams can build a similar unit with Verse, Young, Clowney, Stewart, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and even Poona Ford, to an extent. Clowney typically only lines up as an outside linebacker but even adding him to that position group will keep everyone\u2019s legs fresh throughout the game and the season.<\/p>\n
As Blaine Grisak of Turf Show Times points out, Young\u2019s pass-rush win rate has dipped after Week 11 in each of the last two seasons, a sign that he might be wearing down as the year goes on. Signing another capable edge defender like Clowney could help him sustain a higher level of production.<\/p>\n
Con: There are durability concerns<\/p>\n
Clowney has only played a full season twice in his career (2017, 2023). Other than those two seasons, he\u2019s missed at least one game in every other year. There were greater concerns about his health early in his career but in the last five seasons, he\u2019s played more than 14 games just once.<\/p>\n
And now that he\u2019s 32, there has to be at least a little bit of worry that he won\u2019t be healthy for an entire 17-game season, plus the playoffs. Maybe joining a defense where he doesn\u2019t have to play 75-plus percent of the snaps every week will benefit him, putting less wear and tear on his body.<\/p>\n
Verdict<\/p>\n
If the price is right, it\u2019s hard to see Clowney being a poor investment for a team like the Rams. They don\u2019t need a veteran pass rusher, but the more depth they can have at outside linebacker, the better.<\/p>\n
Like the Eagles did in the Super Bowl, they can keep rotating pass rushers and mixing up their personnel to keep everyone healthy and fresh throughout the year. At this point in his career, Clowney doesn\u2019t have to be \u201cthe guy\u201d anymore. He can be a complementary piece, similar to the way Justin Houston was late in his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clowney could be a perfect complement to Jared Verse and Byron Young A former No. 1 overall pick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[247,265,240,5995,1214,235,260,4885,7,4884,4893,239,1014,58,2444,2611,248,267,246,88,6,245,264,236,424,9,266,5952],"class_list":{"0":"post-38372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-angeles","11":"tag-byron","12":"tag-byron-young","13":"tag-carolina","14":"tag-carolina-panthers","15":"tag-clowney","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-jadeveon","18":"tag-jadeveon-clowney","19":"tag-los","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-rams","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangelesrams","24":"tag-national","25":"tag-national-sports","26":"tag-neutral","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-nfl","29":"tag-overall","30":"tag-overall-neutral","31":"tag-panthers","32":"tag-rams","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-sports-news","35":"tag-young"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114482149168930906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}