Keidel: Giants Must Be Wary Of Signing Jadeveon Clowney

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Jadeveon Clowney lunged into our living rooms with maybe the most memorable hit in college football.

While playing for South Carolina, Clowney charged through a hole in Michigan's offensive line and torpedoed the unsuspecting running back, who had just grabbed the handoff. The runner lost the ball and while his helmet popped off his head, twirling into the air and then tumbling to the ground. Clowney clutched the loose ball, and from that moment on he was a star. 

Fast-forward to last year, when he was a maniacal force for the Seattle Seahawks, helping them secure a 12-4 record while bull-rushing his way into opposing backfields. Despite suffering a sports hernia in Week 10, Clowney was vital to the second half of the Seahawks’ season, and a tornadic edge rusher in the playoffs. Indeed, a piece from the Seattle Times, describing his wreckage against the Eagles in the first round of the NFL playoffs, said that, when healthy, Clowney was the second-most important player on the team, after all-world quarterback Russell Wilson. Clowney's impact was also echoed by head coach Pete Carroll after the Eagles game.

For the 2019 playoffs, Clowney was clearly Seattle's best defensive player. In spite of his injury, he posted nine solo tackles in two games, including 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, and three QB hits, including the one that knocked Eagles QB Carson Wentz out of the game for good.  

Those are two remarkable bookends to a career. But it's all the pages in between that make you wonder about Clowney as he enters free agency, and is sure to command buckets of money from teams with weak defensive lines. It's also been reported that the New York Football Giants are among the suitors for his considerable talents. 

Is Clowney the tackling and sacking machine that made him a star at South Carolina and the best defensive player on the Seahawks last season? Or is he the player who, despite his considerable talents and contours, notched just 32 sacks in six NFL seasons? At 27, Clowney is in his prime. And at 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, he looks every bit the best player on any team. He runs like a deer and hits like a bear. But you wonder why he waited until the end of his contract to play with the kind of ferocity that made him so fearfully good in January. Or is he just too injury prone to produce those kinds of games with any regularity?

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Among all the complexities of routes, schemes, and substitutions, we know two bedrock realities about today's NFL - you must have a top-tier quarterback and the ability to get to the other quarterback. The most recent Super Bowl italicized these two truths, when the team with the NFL's best passer (Kansas City) played the team with the most dominant defensive line (San Francisco). 

The Giants have their passer of the future, in Daniel Jones. But they had just 36 sacks over 16 games, which ranked 22nd in the league. Big Blue plans to make a play for their best pass rusher, Markus Golden, who led the team with ten. Pairing him with Clowney would surely have some fans salivating at the possibilities. 

But for all his obvious gifts, Clowney has been hounded by questions over his (metaphorical) heart. Going back to his college days, his dedication to football has been challenged. And those doubts didn't die when he entered the NFL. A 2014 tweet by Ian Rapoport asserted that the Texans were frustrated by Clowney, when the rookie missed a game with a mysterious illnesses, and even embarrassed the team the week before by liking an Instagram post during the middle of a Texans game. 

These are the hurdles that make teams flinch before making it rain on free agents. Clowney has all the millennial dimensions - bigger, faster, stronger, while more aloof and relaxed in a sport that demands the inner madman every Sunday. His talent is so seductive, you can see the G-Men signing Clowney to a nine-figure contract. But with all that money in his bank, can the Giants bank on Clowney to put his large frame on the line every week? 

Coming off a 4-12 season, the Giants have many holes and copious cash (about $74 million in cap space, according to overthegcap.com). They need help on the offensive line, in the secondary and, yes, on the defensive line. But perhaps it's better to find a gaggle of good players than dump 30% of their cap on a potentially great player who would look great on Saturday but is too much of a variable on Sunday. 

Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonKeidel