Seahawks Pull Off Big Time Trade
RENTON, Wash. (CBS) — The offseason drama between the Houston Texans and Jadeveon Clowney is all but officially over.
CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora has confirmed that the Texans have finalized a multi-player trade with the Seahawks that will send Clowney to Seattle. In exchange for Clowney, the Seahawks will be sending Barkevious Mingo, Jacob Martin and a 2020 third-round draft pick to Houston, according to MMQB.com.
The trade ends nearly six months of drama between Clowney and the Texans. The two sides have basically been at odds since March when Houston hit Clowney with the franchise tag. The reason that created tension is because Clowney thought he deserved to be tagged as a defensive end (which would mean a $17.13 million contract in 2019), but the Texans tagged him as a linebacker, which means he’s only going to make $15.97 million.
After being tagged, Clowney skipped all of the Houston’s offseason training activities in the spring and then never reported to training camp. With the Clowney situation hanging over the Texans’ head going into the regular season, coach Bill O’Brien hinted this week that the team might look to get rid of him.
“All I can tell you without getting into the specifics is [it’s] always about what’s best for your team,” O’Brien said, via ESPN.com. “What’s best for your team from a value standpoint, monetarily, skill set-wise, production-wise — all those different things. It’s always going to be well-thought-out and it’s always going to be in the name of what is best for the team — is this the best decision for the team?”
The Texans had been trying to deal Clowney for more than a week, but it’s been nearly impossible due to the unique situation they were facing.
The problem for Houston was that Clowney held almost all the leverage in the situation. Since he was hit with the franchise tag, that meant the Texans couldn’t trade him unless he actually signed the tag, which he refused to do. Basically, that meant that the Texans couldn’t trade him anywhere he didn’t want to go.
The Texans learned that the hard way earlier this week when they tried to pull off a trade with the Dolphins. According to one report, Houston offered to send Clowney and a future first-round pick to Miami in exchange for offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil. However, the deal didn’t get done because Clowney reportedly refused to sign his franchise tender because he didn’t want to be dealt to Miami. The deal also didn’t get done because the Dolphins wanted Houston to throw in an extra draft pick to sweeten the pot.
Although Clowney refused to sign his tender for a potential trade to Miami, he agreed to sign it if the Texans trade him to one of his preferred locations. Earlier this week, it was reported that Clowney either wants to play for the Seahawks or the Eagles, which is led to Saturday’s trade.
The addition of Clowney is huge for the Seahawks and that’s because they were in some serious need of pass-rush help. Basically, Clowney should go a long way toward filling the void that was left when Seattle traded Frank Clark to the Chiefs in April.
As for the Texans, they are now the poster child for why you should never pull off a trade when you don’t have a general manager. The Texans are in dire need of offensive linemen, but they didn’t land any in the deal. Instead, they got Mingo and Martin. Although Mingo is a serviceable player and Martin has plenty of upside — he tallied three sacks as a rookie last year — it’s unlikely that either player will come close to replacing the talent that Houston lost in Clowney.