Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a league source, reports that former Texans GM Brian Gaine and current HC Bill O’Brien disagreed about whether to sign OLB Jadeveon Clowney to a long-term extension.
According to Florio, Gaine preferred to sign Clowney to an extension while O’Brien’s preference was to franchise him and allow him to play out the season under the franchise tag.
Clearly, O’Brien won out and is ultimately the one calling the shots in Houston after the team failed to hire Patriots’ executive Nick Caserio as GM last month.
Earlier in the day, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reported that the Texans and Clowney are not expected to get a long-term extension in place before the July 15 deadline.
Wilson mentions that Clowney is likely to miss at least a “major portion” of training camp, but should be back for the start of the regular season.
Houston the franchise tag on him back in March, which will cost them $15,967,200 for the 2019 season.
It’s worth mentioning that Clowney’s name has come up as a possible trade candidate. However, there hasn’t been any recent buzz about the possibility.
Clowney, 25, is a former No. 1 overall pick of the Texans back in 2014. He was in the final year of his four-year, $22.272 million contract when the Texans picked up his fifth-year option which paid him $12.306 million for 2018.
Clowney will once again be in position to test the open market as an unrestricted free agent in 2020.
In 2018, Clowney appeared in 15 games for the Texans and recorded 47 tackles, 9 sacks, a forced fumble, three fumble recoveries, one defensive touchdown and a pass defense. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 9 overall edge defender out of 103 qualifying players.
We’ll have more on Clowney and the Texans as the news is available.
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