AFC Coach Denies Meeting With Jadeveon Clowney

Getty Jadeveon Clowney continues to play the waiting game in free agency.

The Tennessee Titans have been frequently mentioned as the Seattle Seahawks’ biggest threat to signing Jadeveon Clowney. It does not sound like the Titans’ negotiations with Clowney made it very far as head coach Mike Vrabel denied speaking with the pass rusher during free agency.

“Vrabel on Clowney: ‘I have not talked to JD,'” Titans Online’s Jim Wyatt tweeted.

Earlier in free agency, Titans general manager Jon Robinson admitted that the team had been in contact with Clowney, but after the draft he noted that there was “nothing imminent” with the pass rusher.

“Like I’ve said numerous times now there are several guys who are still free agents who are out there, that we’ve had discussions with,” Robinson explained to The Midday 180, per PaulKuharsky.com. “I would again echo what I’ve said: There is nothing imminent. We’ve had those talks. I don’t think — that’s not coming in at any point this afternoon. But we’ll continue to take stock of where the roster is at and work through things and if something manifests itself and we can figure it out with somebody that is a free agent now and we think it helps our football team then we’ll certainly entertain it.”

ESPN’s Field Yates Called the Titans the Best Fit for Clowney

Despite the Titans’ recent comments, ESPN’s Field Yates called Tennessee the best fit for Clowney. Vrabel is familiar with Clowney given their time together with the Texans.

“Sometimes when there is smoke, there’s fire,” Yates explained. “Tennessee has publicly acknowledged that it has communicated with Clowney, who would reunite with Mike Vrabel (from their Texans days) and provide a boost to their edge play.”

The Athletic’s Jay Glazer Reported That Clowney Will Wait Until the Summer to Make a Decision

Clowney appears content to wait out the process until he is able to meet in-person with teams. Due to the NFL’s response to COVID-19, these meeting restrictions do not appear close to being lifted. The Athletic’s Jay Glazier reported that Clowney could wait until the summer to make a decision.

“Last I heard Clowney wanted to wait perhaps as late as the summer before he signed somewhere,” Glazier explained. “That may change but that’s the last I had heard. He’s in a similar situation to Newton where it actually may be smarter to wait until teams and their medical staffs can see the players first-hand to ensure they are healthy. If they are deemed fully healthy that helps their market.”

The Seahawks have straddled both sides of the Clowney question emphasizing that they have not ruled out bringing back the pass rusher but also noting the team had to “move on” during the offseason. Seahawks general manager John Schneider told Baltimore 105.7 The Fan that they had to “go about our business.”

“We made a strong push to try to reacquire Jadeveon,” Schneider said. “When we made the trade, we had made a trade with Houston where part of the agreement was we would not franchise him as we headed into this offseason. …The longer these negotiations go there is not a ton of urgency on a lot of people’s behalf, really. …We made a strong pitch to try to reacquire him and then we had to have a date to kind of go about our business and continue to build this team. He knows the door is not closed. He did a really nice job for us. Heckuva player, obviously.”