Prospect Analysis: Jadaveon Clowney
 

This is a good video from ESPN evaluating the upside AND the downside of Clowney.



The Mario comparisons start now... a physical specimen who can dominate as a 4-3 DE, but lacks the kind of motor you see on someone like J.J Watt.

Going back to the 2006 draft, of Mario vs. Bush vs. VY, the right decision then was Mario. If 2014 becomes a discussion of Clowney vs. Teddy vs. Manziel (or Matthews/Barr/someone else), do the Texans look at DE once again?

This can go one of three ways: 1) What is Clowney in our scheme? Is he a 4-3 DE or a 3-4 OLB and which defense will he be asked to fit into? Wade tried to make Mario into a 3-4 OLB and, while he got hurt before we saw the finished product, I wasn't that thrilled with the results. Clowney might be a better fit than Mario because he's more of a speed rusher than Mario was.

2) Is he going to get fat and lazy by Year 3 with a big contract or was he dogging it at S. Carolina because he already knew his ticket was the NFL and he didn't want to be like Marcus Lattimore with blown out knees in college?

3) If Clowney can fit the scheme *and* continue to be motivated throughout his contract, he's the no-doubt top pick in the draft. If he doesn't fit the scheme or doesn't push himself, better to look elsewhere at 1-1 in the draft.

Keith isn't that really an apples and oranges comparison since we already had
what we thought was our "franchise QB" in place, atleast those were Bob McNair's sentiments back in '06, whereas right now we don't have a clue about who's starting at QB for us in September ?
Besides QB, there's only about 2 other positions that are generally considered worthy of the #1 overall: OLT and a stud edge-rusher and as a non-QB candidate I see nobody else on the horizen but Clowney ?

I know this was just an aside from the topic at hand, but Mario had 5 sacks and 1 forced fumble in the 5 games he played. Averaging a sack a game while acclimating to a new position seems like a pretty good start to me. Exactly what level of production would have thrilled you?

Mario was getting sacks but he looked lost in space way too often - out of position to make tackles or support the line on running plays. Frankly, I think he was just too large to play outside LB other than isolating him on blocking TEs during pass rushes. Either Wade was going to turn him into a johnny-one-note pass rusher (a hell of a pass rusher but still a one-trick pony) or he was going to have to teach him how to defend the run from that position which he didn't appear to have a feel for.

Most of the top sack guys are one note pass rushers. Mario is so big and fast you can point him at the OT and tell him to run at the guy as hard as he can and it collapses the pocket and results in sacks. He had no pass rush moves or football instincts and yet will likely end with over 100 career sacks. He is very valuable but so frustrating because you are looking at a really good player who could be Reggie White if he really cared.

Clowney has all of that and more - he's got something that Mario doesn't have and something you could never teach him. Clowney has that fast twitch thing going like no big man I've ever seen. His first step is explosive. It's awesome. And I can't wait to see him at the Indy Combine this year.