Deadline Passes Without Deal Between Texans, Jadeveon Clowney

Update:

The deadline to negotiate with franchise players has officially passed with an agreement in place between the Texans and OLB Jadeveon Clowney.

Clowney will now play out the 2019 season under the franchise tag before becoming an unrestricted free agent next year. 

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Texans and franchise OLB Jadeveon Clowney will not get a long-term deal done before Monday’s 4pm EST deadline.

According to Schefter, there’s no trade in the works for Clowney either.

The expectation from here is that Clowney will skip “most, if not all, of training camp” as he’s yet to sign his franchise tender worth $15.967 million for the 2019 season.

Schefter notes that Clowney is set to earn an additional $524,000 this season. There’s also the issue of whether he should be considered an outside linebacker or a defensive end, which is the difference of $1.6 million or so.

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.

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.