I tend to think most of us take Clowney for granted a bit. Super talented and produces. He doesn’t have sexy numbers, but he’s really good. Fair or not I think that some of us worry how he will be after getting paid. I really don’t want to pay him longterm, just don’t feel good about it. I do think he deserves to get paid and I also hope he produces here or elsewhere moving forward.
Clowney's value is not what some of you think. Injury history hurts his value...ALOT. Probably why Chiefs chose Clark over him.
I signed into The Athletic for the Q&A discussion today with Texans beat writer Aaron Riess and had the only question about Clowney. Take it for what it's worth.
Remember the micro fracture surgery he had his rookie year? People think that is a time bomb for future problems.
What happens is to do microfracture you go into the remaining cartridge and drill little holes into it or otherwise damage the surface of the remaining cartlidge. If it doesn't fail right away because the cartridge was already too badly damaged, a blood clot forms which causes something a whole lot like cartridge to grow back into the damaged joint. But it isnt as strong as normally grown cartridge. I saw some medical literature call it pseudo-cartlidge. Normally, according to medical literature, this new, less strong cartridge stuff begins to break down again four or five years after initial recovery. (I.E. right about now). That four to five year number is entirely uniformly cited across everything I read. The problem is, the accelerated disintegration doesn't happen uniformly in all patients. There are people who have gone eight or more years with no reoccurrence of symptoms. Compounding this, the procedure is new enough that there simply aren't that many people that had it done a decade ago so the data is limited. But based on the medical literature I've read (and I'm not a doctor), Clowney is right at the point where a significant portion of the people who had very successful surgeries and were problem free for four or five years begin to experience problems again. And of course, the numbers don't include the wear and tear of pro football, which could skew results negatively. Or maybe not, nobody knows for sure. Clowney, as far as I know, is just about the first NFL player to get it done at that young of an age. It's possible he falls over in pain in six months. It's possible he plays twelve years and it never gets any worse. And nobody at all can reliably tell you how likely each outcome is. As risk adverse as NFL teams are, the prospect of a long term contract has to be terrifying.
I like Clowney, he’s a pro bowl talent. Problem is that he isn’t that special of a talent that you can surround him with average players, hoping they play well above their pay scale. So I would not hamstring the team salary cap long term for him. Heck if we get 2 more seasons out of Clowney at this level, most of us will be alright with that. He’ll get franchised this season and next, then he can walk if he doesn’t shine beyond being a pro bowl talent that isn’t a true face of the defense, and implement his will on the game!
Although his numbers don't live up to his ability, I think we should resign him. And when I say his numbers don't live up to his ability, I am talking about sack totals. He is an absolute BEAST when it comes to stopping the run (save our most recent playoff game, but that was the entire defense tbh). Long story short: You don't let that kind of talent walk out the door. He's been healthy these last three years and made a major impact. If you trade him, you're relying on our front office to replace that kind of production, and I think we may be taking 9-10 sacks a year with his impact on the run game for granted.
