The Tennessee Titans remain one team rumored to be in the running to sign pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney.
Titans general manager Jon Robinson told Paul Kuharsky on Tuesday night, during a video conversation to help benefit local Save Haven Family Shelter, that he'd hope to see Clowney in person before making any move.
"What I've seen on Twitter, him rushing off the edge and hitting that bag," he said, via PaulKuharsky.com. "Anytime you are dealing with whatever the contract is going to command, you want to make sure that the player is healthy, that you are able to allow your doctors to see him, to look at it, to make sure everything is going to be good."
Last month, Robinson noted he hadn't had recent conversations with Clowney. Presumably, the Cleveland Browns, who restructured edge rusher Olivier Vernon's deal on Tuesday, are likely out of the running for Clowney, lessening the potential landing spots.
Coming off core muscle surgery, the current restrictions on player physicals have slowed Clowney's market. Teams don't seem willing to meet his contract demands -- reportedly upward of $20-plus-million per year -- without at least having their own doctors check him out.
It's possible Clowney must wait well into training camp for teams to bring him in for a physical. It also appears likely that he won't get the long-term deal he seeks this offseason. A one-year prove-it deal might be what the athletic pass-rusher is forced to sign, given the realities of a pandemic-strained offseason.
Robinson did give himself a brief moment to vocalize what Clowney could bring to the Titans defense if signed -- hypothetically, of course.
"You've got (Harold) Landry, you've got (Vic) Beasley, you've got Clowney -- hypothetically, to your point -- you've got Jeffery Simmons, you've got DaQuan (Jones), who's got some power rush, you've got (Kamalei) Correa who goes 100 miles an hour, you've got a lot of different pieces that you can move around," he told Kuharsky. "And you've got athleticism with Landry, with Beasley, with Correa, you can drop those guys into coverage and send David Long, Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown or whoever it might be. It just gives you a lot of chess pieces in that game."
Until Tennessee, or any other club, can bring in Clowney for a physical and workout, all Robinson can do is daydream about adding such a chess piece to his board.
