Getty The Seahawks remained in discussions with Jadeveon Clowney until he signed with the Titans.
After an offseason full of uncertainty, Jadeveon Clowney is no longer a member of the Seattle Seahawks, but the team continued their attempt to re-sign the pass rusher up until he committed to the Tennessee Titans. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll delivered the team’s first public comments since Clowney officially signed with the Titans. Carroll described the Seahawks as “involved throughout” the process but admitted the team had “moved on” earlier in the offseason to finalize the roster.
“You know I talked to him throughout the process and stayed with him,” Carroll explained in his press conference, via Pro Football Talk’s Curtis Crabtree. “We had really good, amicable conversations about things and he was just waiting the whole time. He had his sights set really high to start with and it just put him in a situation where he had to wait it out, and he didn’t get near the amount that he wanted, as it turned out. Our offers and stuff early on didn’t look attractive to him because he had his mindset elsewhere. I don’t know. It was just a pretty normal process but he just wasn’t ready to make a call early on.”
Carroll on Seahawks’ Discussions With Clowney: ‘We Were With Him the Whole Time’
Carroll was asked if the Seahawks were still in discussions with Clowney on the final day of his decision. The Seahawks coach described the team as “with him the whole time in the discussion.”
“We were in it the whole time,” Carroll added. “We were with him the whole time in the discussion. There was a switch of agents in there right near the end and all of that and we were, really, John was in on all of it.”
The Seahawks’ Offer to Clowney Was Reportedly in the $10 Million Range
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Clowney’s deal with the Titans is a one-year, $12 million contract. The deal can max out at $15 million if Clowney hits certain incentives. The Seahawks’ offer was in the $10 million range, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
“The team I was told he had his eyes on all along—Baltimore—wasn’t reciprocating the love,” Breer noted. “And the teams he was connected to most (Tennessee, Seattle and New Orleans) lingered in the range of $10-12 million. The Saints tried, but $10 million was really as far as they could responsibly go. The Seahawks had a number in mind (I’m told it was around $10 million, too), and weren’t budging much. Tennessee, conversely, showed flexibility—and my guess is the incentives that can take him from $12 million to $15 million are there to help Clowney save face after walking away from the latter number.”
It is unclear if the Seahawks had an opportunity to match the Titans’ final offer as they had hoped. The Seahawks clearly did not value Clowney the way the pass rusher had expected, and Seattle is banking on the idea that a committee of new additions can make up the difference on the defensive line this season.
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