Buccaneers Urged to Trade for Former No. 1 Overall Pick

“Todd Bowles is a coach that wants to get after teams defensively,” Ballentine wrote. “He’s built his career on aggressive defenses and the Buccaneers are routinely among the league’s heaviest users of blitzes … Finding an upgrade on the trade market at the edge-rusher positions could be the way to go. The Panthers might not be too keen on helping out a division rival by trading Jadeveon Clowney, but he’s a logical cap casualty and likely a short-term fix to a major problem.”

While any hypothetical trade for Clowney would likely involve a later round pick going from the Buccaneers to the Panthers, Ballentine makes a great point when he says the Buccaneers might not even have to do that in order to land him.

Clowney has had a rollercoaster career since he was drafted No. 1 overall by the Houston Texans in the 2014 NFL draft out of the University of South Carolina.

Clowney only played 4 games as a rookie before undergoing microfracture surgery, missed 3 games in 2015 and finally had a breakout season in 2016 when he earned his only career NFL All-Pro nod so far and first of 3 consecutive Pro Bowl selections with 52 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 16 TFL and 17 QB hits.

After Clowney was traded to the Seattle Seahawks just 1 week before the 2019 season he’s been the definition of a football nomad. He played the 2019 season on a 1-year, $15.9 million contract in Seattle, played 2020 on a 1-year, $13 million contract with the Tennessee Titans then played 2021 and 2022 with the Cleveland Browns on back-to-back 1-year contracts worth a total of $18 million.

Clowney played 2022 on a 1-year, $2.5 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens and matched his career high with 9.5 sacks, turning that into his latest deal with the Panthers.

In 2024, Clowney had a season that would have made him one of the Buccaneers’ top defenders with 5.5 sacks — numbers that would be welcome in Tampa Bay.

While the Buccaneers won’t have any interest in investing in a 32-year-old player like Clowney for the long term, even paying $10 million for 1 season for him might be too much to pay.

The better move might be to wait until the NFL draft to see what the Panthers do there.

If Carolina drafts an edge rusher in the first round you can almost guarantee Clowney is going to be designated a post-June 1 cut, which would save Carolina $7.8 million in salary cap chargers. Which means the Buccaneers could get Clowney on a deal that’s closer to a 1-year, $5 million contract.