With the NFL Draft coming, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is who is going to be the number one overall pick in the 2014 draft? The answer: Jadeveon Clowney.
Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN draft analyst, said, “Clowney’s a rare talent, basically to the defensive end spot what Andrew Luck and RG3 were to the quarterback position.”
The thing little people knew going into last year’s NFL season is that the Super Bowl contending Houston Texans were going to have the number one pick.
After a 2-0 start, the Texans dropped their last fourteen games of the regular season, which featured turmoil at the quarterback position, and an axing of the franchise’s only head coach Gary Kubiak as well as all his assistants.
So why will the Texans be so into Jadeveon Clowney if it seems they will need a QB?
That is where Bill O’Brien comes in. Former New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator and Penn State head coach took the job as the second head coach of the Texans franchise and has some big expectations for the upcoming season.
O’Brien has had a pretty successful coaching career with helping Tom Brady in New England and coaching the sixth round pick into a superstar winning quarterback. As well as in Penn State where he coached for 2 years and had a 15-9 record also coaching up Christian Hackenberg, who in his first year as quarterback for the Nittany Lions, had 2,955 passing yards and 20 touchdowns to go along with 10 interceptions.
O’Brien is into the stereotypical size for the quarterback being around 6’2″ and 220 lbs. None of the top QBs in the draft fit that. With an undersized Johnny Manziel being pushed into being drafted by the Texans by many media outlets in Houston, this makes O’Brien’s job tough.
Also with O’Brien’s track record with quarterbacks being flawless, one could be pretty sure that he can coach up any quarterback on his roster already. With Matt Schaub being out on a limb and probably going to be cut, he can focus his time on his two young quarterbacks, Case Keenum and TJ Yates.
Keenum, who could not win a game last year, showed some growing pains as an undrafted rookie free agent, but also showed signs of hope.
Yates, who played well in his rookie year filling in for injured starting quarterback Matt Schaub, took the helms of the team and led them to their first playoffs in franchise history, and even winning in the Wild Card round as well.
Also, you have to think about the Super Bowl champions. With Seattle winning a Super Bowl on power running and a dominant defense, franchises around the NFL will want to duplicate that success.
If the Texans get Clowney, they will have him on a defensive line with former Defensive Player of the Year, JJ Watt. This duo will have the potential to be one of the premier combinations in the NFL, a good stepping stone for building a dominant defense.
To solve the power run to counteract the defense, the Texans have Arian Foster who is coming off a year of recovering from injury, a major part on the team’s collapse last year. Foster, who gained consecutive thousand yard seasons and was top 5 in that category until getting injured, will be fresh and back healthy next year.
The other thing to consider for this decision is Clowney himself. At 6’6″ and 274 lbs., he has the size to fit his position at the NFL level.
In his first two years at South Carolina, he had 8 and 13 sacks, respectively. As well as having the biggest hit in college football that lauded him an internet sensation. To go along with a 4.5 sacks in a game against Clemson.
Although he did not play up to snuff last year, only tallying 3 sacks, one would think to stay away from him for lack of production. This does not scare NFL executives away from taking him as one of the top picks.
With Clowney already at the top of every analyst’s draft board at the beginning of the 2o13-14 college football campaign, Clowney really did not have anything to prove other than staying healthy for the draft.
Obviously, it was met with backlash, but Clowney proved himself in a great effort in the Capital One Bowl where he tallied 5 tackles and two pass defensed.
All in all, Houston needs Jadeveon Clowney, a defense that has the potential with defensive ends like him and JJ Watt, and a front seven that features Brooks Reed and Brian Cushing. Why not? He is there for the taking so go ahead Houston and take him.