Houston Texans

Jadeveon Clowney More Overrated Now Than in College

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:05 p.m. ET

Fansided, Carl Cockerham/FanSided via With the First Pick

I’ve never seen a more overrated football player in my life!

When Jadeveon Clowney came up in the 2014 NFL Draft, he was surrounded by hype. He does have a freaky combination of speed and power but never did much with it. Yet the media was ready to call him the next Lawrence Taylor.

In his last year at South Carolina, he had three sacks and all the media did was make excuses for him. They said he didn’t go all out because he was too concerned about getting injured before the draft. Then they showed the same play over and over to hype him.

Yeah, the play where he made the opposing running back’s helmet fly. That was a nice highlight but he was unblocked on the play and there was nothing else to show. A complete highlight reel comes with multiple plays where he actually beats a blocker.

But still, they called him the next Lawrence Taylor, and the Houston Texans selected him No. 1 overall over Khalil Mack. Then the media started to compare Clowney to Mack. But they would have to wait as Clowney got injured early in his rookie season.

The next year, (Clowney) the “next Lawrence Taylor” had 4.5 sacks in 13 games. Then the media made excuses for him because of the injuries he had. But 13 games is enough to do more damage than 4.5 sacks while playing with J.J. Watt.

From Year 2 to Year 3, all we heard about is how great he is against the run. But they don’t draft edge rushers No. 1 overall to just play well against the run. And somehow in Year 3, they’re calling him a game wrecker with 6 sacks.

Mack had to get 15 sacks in Year 2 and 11 in Year 3 plus play the run well to be called that. The ESPN commentators went too far in the Wildcard Game against the Oakland Raiders. He had a pretty good game against a backup left tackle yet they called him “dominant.”

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The interception and two passes batted down were great but Clowney didn’t dominate anything!

According analyst Jon Gruden, the Texans are saying he’s better than J.J. Watt now.

Are they high?

Watt takes triple-teams and still makes a lot of splash plays. Mack beat a triple-team to beat the Carolina Panthers with a strip-sack in Week 11. But with one tackle and no sacks against a backup left tackle and rookie quarterback, Clowney is “dominant.”

He’s better than J.J. Watt?

Don’t you dare say Khalil Mack, who had 11 tackles and two for a loss that day. Mack has 30 sacks in three years to Clowney’s 10.5, which isn’t even a good two-year total. As a matter of fact, he’s not even the best edge rusher on his own team.

Whitney Mercilus had two sacks, two quarterback hits, 3.5 tackles for a loss while Clowney got the glory. He was the real game-wrecker for the Texans Saturday. But after the game, all they showed over and over and over and over again was Clowney’s interception.

That’s the same thing the media did for him when he was coming out in the draft. I guess when the media wants you to be someone, you will be. Clowney is a good football player and I’m sure he’ll get better but right now, he’s as overrated as I’ve ever seen.