Even if I buy into that, I still don't hold his senior season against him the way you guys do. So it's a moot point for me. I completely understand why he shut it down and if I were him I'd do the same thing. Doesn't say anything about his desire or work ethic, it just says that he's actually pretty smart.
But your contention that he's been the consensus #1 pick for more than a year isn't? He's far from the first top-flight prospect who wasn't draft eligible. I can't think of a single one who thought their performance two years ago was sufficient and skated through their final year of eligibility. No, Donny; the concern is that he slacks for three years and then turns it on in his contract year.
It may have been a joke but as poorly as the offense played did affect the defense tremendously, they were behind the eight ball early and often which destroyed their will.
I'm with trading down... I have no problem with that. But those extra pics may never equal the value of Watkins and we'll probably be drafting in the top 5 again next year REGARDLESS of what the Texans do this year... So get Sammy now so Famous, Marcus, or CJ will have a top notch #1 receiver in place when we draft one of them.
I guy with motivational/effort issues, it does not seem to far fetched. Just show your flashes of brilliance your 1st 3 years then go hard your contract year. He would not be the first to do that. If he was really into maximizing his potential, he would have worked on improving himself this year.
For someone so worried about his payday, that seems like a really good way to hurt your earning potential. Who says he didn't? You don't get better in games. You get better in practice.
Well, he essentially took a year off and potentially jeopardized his consensus #1 overall status, hasn't he?
All that matters it seems is your contract year. Wasn't his coach not too impressed with his practice effort or am I thinking of someone else?
I'd say no. But then again, it's a tough and almost unprecedented situation for someone to be put in, so I'm not going to crap on him for it.
It's the most important, but it's not all that matters. Obviously, the closer your production to the end of the contract, the more valuable that production is to your next deal. But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that a guy who has 2 bad years then 2 great years is going to get paid the same as a guy who has 3 bad years than 1 great year.
If Clowney has any self respect he wont wanna be known as the other guy, Watt will get the most out of him.
Can you imagine JJ Watt being able to shut it down, even if his agent told him it was the "smart move"? As a human being, I completely understand shutting it down. I might do it and I would bet Clowney is a happier human being that Watt. Good for him. But for my football team I want obsessive compulsive, incredibly insecure hyper competitive @ssholes. I want guys who would become pathological at any suggestion that they aren't the greatest ever. Richard Sherman. Peyton Manning. JJ Watt. Michael Jordan. Wayne Gretsky. Kobe. They're all pains in the @ss. Reading between the lines, it's clear that the team wasn't happy with Mario Williams' lack of football obsession. McNair made it clear that he links the two together in his mind. I honestly believe that their star history of Mario followed by Watt (who they obviously love) is going to make them gunshy on Clowney.
They were constantly behind because there was no pass rush without blitzing which made it easy for teams to tear them apart, especially once Cushing was out for the year. Give us a better pass rush (Clowney for example) and keep Cushing and Foster healthy and they are probably at least a .500 team.
Listening to a guy like Teddy J talk on the radio, he mentioned how a guys work ethic is basically what it is. Hard workers might be able to push you to work harder, but from what he saw it did not normally work that way.
Also, can we stop with the "Clowney shut it down" BS? The tape simply does not support that trope no matter how popular it is.
Show me that guy in this draft with comparable measurables and I'll sign up immediately. All I hear though is people b****ing about Clowney not wanting to blow a knee out and a bunch of QB pro-day pee-pee games.
