CLEVELAND — Several players on the Cleveland Browns roster will be playing in their final game with the team during its regular-season finale vs. the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Myes Garrett is hopeful that won't be the case for Jadeveon Clowney.
Speaking to reporters last week, the Browns' All-Pro defensive end said that he would recruit Clowney to stay in Cleveland beyond the one-year contract he signed ahead of the 2021 campaign. Just days before the Browns are set to play in their regular-season finale, it appears that process has already begun.
“I want him here," Garrett said of Clowney on Friday, confirming he's already begun recruiting him to stay. "He had two sacks last game. He was disruptive. I feel like he is disruptive every time he is out there, especially when we are out there together and they can’t key in on just one of us."
The tandem of Garrett and Clowney has been one of the rare bright spots in a Browns' season that has otherwise had very few. While Garrett has posted a career-best and franchise single-season record with 15 sacks, Clowney has enjoyed a career resurgence with seven sacks after a pair of disappointing seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans.
Clowney's re-emergence, however, could be viewed as a double-edged sword for Cleveland. While the Browns were able to sign him to a relatively team-friendly one-year, $8 million contract this past offseason, Pro Football Focus projects the No. 1 pick of the 2014 NFL Draft to be in line for a one-year, $15 million contract.
That could prove costly for a Cleveland team that will have to be more mindful of its cap situation as high-priced extensions -- including Garrett's -- begin to kick in. But if Clowney does wind up playing for somebody other than the Browns next year, it won't be because of a lack of love in Cleveland.
"The guy is hitting his stride," Garrett said of the 28-year-old Clowney. "I think he has a lot of football left."