What Signing Jadeveon Clowney Would Do for Rams' Young Defense

The Los Angeles Rams present one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, including a defensive front-seven that features a hefty amount of talent with four or less years of starting experience that features defensive rookie of the year Jared Verse, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, and more.

However, there is risk that comes around when putting trust into a young group of talent. The Rams feature exceptional youth on both sides of the ball with a nice mixture of veteran talent but sometimes that has led to slow starts as the team has seen in recent seasons.

Despite 20 wins in two years, the team has not had hot enough introductions to their campaigns as the inexperience takes hold.

The edge rusher room is especially young with Verse, Byron Young, Josaiah Stewart, and Brennan Jackson possessing three years or less experience in the NFL. They could use a veteran pass rusher to help be a mentor to the talent in the room.

One veteran player that the Rams could add is Jadeveon Clowney, who the Carolina Panthers released Thursday afternoon during rookie minicamp cuts, saving the team over $7 million in cap space. 

In his lone season with his hometown NFL franchise, Clowney tallied just 5.5 sacks on a historically bad Panthers defense that gave up the most points in a single season in league history. Clowney is an aging veteran who is seemingly running out of time to win a Lombardi Trophy. 

The former Panther still presents value to an NFL franchise with leadership skills, size, length, power, pass rush discipline, and ample run defense. In plenty of ways, he adds some of what Los Angeles is lacking right now at edge rusher. Plus, he would come cheap considering how late in the offseason he was let go.

The former 2014 No. 1 draft selection out of South Carolina has had a productive career and the starting experience that the Rams could use. Clowney may seem like the Rams attempting to load up on talent in an effort to make a clearer path to winning a Super Bowl.

While the reasoning for his release is unknown, we could assume that the Panthers current direction wasn’t feasible for Clowney’s goals of playing for a title contender.

Clowney likely wouldn’t be an every-down starter but he would provide ample value for Los Angeles’ run defense, especially when setting the edge, spilling the run, and making plays in the backfield. It would be another welcomed and needed element for the Rams, who are hoping to return to the Super Bowl for the first time in four years.