Moore: Why a Jadeveon Clowney trade makes perfect sense for the Seahawks

Reports surfaced out of Houston Tuesday that disgruntled holdout Jadeveon Clowney has the Seahawks on his really short list of teams he would like to be traded to. The Eagles are the only other team on his list. Yet meanwhile he was visiting the Dolphins, a team that is much farther away from being a Super Bowl contender than the Seahawks and Eagles.

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Seahawks general manager John Schneider should step up his pursuit of Clowney. The Seahawks need a better pass rush than they have now, especially in the first six games playing without the suspended Jarran Reed, who had 10.5 sacks last year.

Last spring it was believed that the Texans would unload Clowney in exchange for a second-round pick. If that’s still the case, hopefully Schneider will pull the trigger. Is Clowney worth a second-round choice? I think he is, particularly when you consider that he was the No. 1 pick overall in 2014 and also a player who has produced 18.5 sacks in the last two years and 60 in his career. If you teamed him with a hopefully healthy Ziggy Ansah, the Seahawks would go from having a subpar or maybe a halfway decent pass rush to potentially having one of the best in the league.

Second-round picks in the Schneider era have featured hits and misses. The biggest hits are Bobby Wagner in 2012, Justin Britt in 2014, Frank Clark in 2015 and Jarran Reed in 2016. The biggest misses were Christine Michael in 2013 and Malik McDowell in 2017. Somewhere in between are Golden Tate in 2010, Paul Richardson in 2014 and Ethan Pocic in 2017.

Even if the Seahawks gave up a second-round pick, they’d still have another that they got in the offseason trade that sent Clark to Kansas City.

If the Texans insist on getting a second-rounder and an offensive lineman, I’d say no deal. If the Texans insist on a second-rounder and a running back, I’d think about it, especially if they agreed on a trade including J.D. McKissic or C.J. Prosise. Heck, I’d consider it if Rashaad Penny was part of the deal, but I know Schneider wouldn’t.

Whatever the case, it’s reached a point where it’s pretty clear that Clowney won’t play for the Texans again. Before he can even be traded, he needs to sign his franchise-tag tender of $15.97 million.

If you’re concerned about Clowney being a one-year rental, I’d say so what to that. Aren’t you always in win-now mode with the Seahawks as long as Russell Wilson is the quarterback? Plus if you lose Clowney after the season, you’d get a third-round compensatory pick.

I actually think a trade is going to happen. It makes too much sense. And factor in that Schneider loves to bring in former first-rounders to see if a change of scenery revitalizes players that everyone thought so highly of when they were drafted. Examples of that are Luke Joeckel, who did not work out, and Barkevious Mingo, who hasn’t been great with the Seahawks but hasn’t been terrible either.

Clowney would also reduce the need to blitz to get to the quarterback. We’ve seen a lot of blitzing in the preseason, an indication that we’ll see more of it than usual in the regular season. Yet everyone knows that Pete Carroll does not like to blitz. And as much as I like blitzes, I’d be concerned about the secondary getting burned since it’s nowhere close to being the second coming of the Legion of Boom.

If the Seahawks trade for Clowney, a marginal defense would turn into one that could help the Seahawks overtake the Rams in the NFC West and perhaps contend for a return to the Super Bowl.

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Also from Jim Moore:

• A message for fans who think Clowney trade would be too risky
• Moore: What should the Seahawks do with Prosise?
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