Patriots Urged to Sign $10 Million Jadeveon Clowney After Panthers Shock Release

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Former No. 1 draft pick Jadeveon Clowney is suddenly a free agent.

The Carolina Panthers, a team that won just five games last season and has not seen a winning year since 2017 when they went 11-5, gave former No. 1 overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney his walking papers on Thursday. The three-time Pro Bowl edge rusher suddenly finds himself as a free agent — and according to one top NFL analyst, the New England Patriots “should 100 percent” make every effort to sign him.

Though he has been without a football home for only about 24 hours, Clowney has already been linked to a number of NFL teams — including the Washington Commanders, the Atlanta Falcons, the San Francisco 49ers, and even the team where he played in 2023 recording 9 1/2 sacks and 19 more quarterback hits, the Baltimore Ravens.

But the Patriots may have an advantage over their competitors if they plan to make an effort to sign Clowney.

Vrabel, Clowney Have Positive Relationship

The 32-year-old was the first selection in the 2014 draft, out of South Carolina, taken by the Houston Texans, where the linebackers coach was former Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel — who happens to be the Patriots’ new head coach.

Clowney has spoken favorably of Vrabel, saying that he chose in 2020 to sign with the Tennessee Titans as a free agent that year because Vrabel was the head coach there.

“Mike Vrabel is one of the smartest coaches I ever had. He knows football and how to put guys in position to make plays. That’s what he did in Houston and when I got here,” Clowney said shortly after joining Tennessee. “With Mike Vrabel, I made way more plays [than] I did when I was in Seattle.”

The Patriots may have another advantage in pursuing Clowney: their salary cap space. With more than $68.5 million to work with, the Patriots currently lead the NFL in available cap space by a wide margin, more than $21 million more than the second-pace 49ers.

Clowney signed a two-year, $20 million contract with Carolina — and average annual value of $10 million — but the Panthers chose to cut ties after a single season, largely to make way for free agent signing Pat Jones II as well as the not one but two edge rushers they took in this year’s draft: Nic Scourton of Texas A&M and Princely Umanmielen of Ole Miss, in Rounds Two and Three respectively.

The sports business site Spotrac projects Clowney’s market value at $11.4 million for one season.

Patriots Must Get on Phone Now to Sign Clowney: Expert

“The Patriots should 100 percent be on the phone,” said NFL analyst Nick Cattles, host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, on his Friday program. “They should 100 percent be making this phone call if they haven’t already.”

Cattles also said that Clowney would be an affordable pickup for New England.

“I don’t think that Clowney is going to cost you a ton of money,” the Locked On host said. “I don’t think Clowney is going to be asking for the world and I don’t think the Patriots would have any trouble paying Clowney a reasonable salary to offset it with what he was going to make in Carolina this year with some of the guarantees. I don’t think the Patriots would lose sleep over the money they would have to pay Clowney to bring him to town.”

Cattles said the one hesitation Vrabel and Terrell Williams, the new Patriots defensive coordinator hired by Vrabel, might have involves Afrenee Jennings, the linebacker who was a third round pick made by former head coaching general manager Bill Belichick in 2020.

“Jennings is not necessarily the super aggressive violent type of defensive end. That’s what Vrabel and Williams ask their defensive ends to be,” Cattles said. “Jennings doesn’t really fit that.”

Vrabel has also been busy severing ties to the Belichick era as he attempts to create what he has called a new “culture” at Gillette Stadium, another factor that could work against Jennings — and in favor of signing Clowney.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin