Baltimore Ravens could still make a move for Jadeveon Clowney

Jadeveon Clowney is still somehow available on the Free Agency market and believe it or not the Baltimore Ravens are still in the cards to land him.

A wise man once said, “If you’re gonna dream, dream big.” That’s precisely what I’m thinking as I sit here and tell you that the Baltimore Ravens are still in on the Jadeveon Clowney sweepstakes.

Is it next to impossible? Seemingly, but nothing is impossible these days. No one would’ve predicted that Jadeveon Clowney would still be a free agent past the first 24 hours of the legal tampering period. As of writing this late on the evening of March 18th, Clowney’s services are still available.

Clowney has reportedly been “disappointed” by the small market he’s seen in Free Agency so far. This may lead to the 27-year old star to take a one-year deal with a contender like the Baltimore Ravens.

Before you click away, just hear me out…

I can already hear you moan that the Ravens don’t have the cap space for Jadeveon Clowney currently and you’d be right about that. After moving on from cornerback Brandon Carr, Baltimore only has ~$3 million in cap space to work with (per spotrac.com). This amount of money isn’t enough to bring in any player, let alone Clowney. But the salary cap is easy to maneuver and adjust.

First of all, the team still isn’t married to bringing back Matt Judon for 2020. Judon has the franchise tag slapped on him and there’s a reason he’s been the subject of trade conversations. Dealing Judon would give the team ~$16 million back in cap space, which is plenty to offer Clowney.

No one is taking into account that Baltimore could also restructure the deals of guys like Brandon Williams and Tavon Young, both of whom haven’t exactly wowed on their new contracts for one reason or another. Getting guys to restructure or turn their cap hits into signing bonuses isn’t the hardest thing to do and the Ravens have done this in the past.

All of a sudden bringing in Jadeveon Clowney is a more legitimate possibility than you initially gave me credit for. I don’t need to paint a picture for you of how amazing he would look in a Baltimore Ravens uniform, or how much better the defense would become because of his presence. Instead, I’m trying to show you that this move could definitely still be in play for the Ravens to make. If we’ve learned anything by now, it’s that we shouldn’t consider anything impossible for Eric DeCosta.

It seems like a stretch but it’s really not. The Baltimore Ravens are in win-now mode while Lamar Jackson is still dirt-cheap on his rookie contract. Players are going to want to come to play for this team and Jadeveon Clowney could very well be one of those players. Baltimore can make adjustments to their roster easily and fit Clowney onto a team that’s already loaded with talent.