Been down this road before with Clowney
We didn’t even make it to the first preseason game. • Of course. • I mean, that’s how it goes, right? That’s everything we’ve come to expect from the Texan who was supposed to be a once-in-a-generation defender. • When Bill O’Brien’s crew opens its 2016 preseason slate Sunday at San Francisco and every Texans-obsessed soul in this city begins to put their oft-broken heart in Brock Osweiler’s hands, guess who’s not scheduled to take the field? • Come on. This is an easy one. You already know the answer. • That’s right: Jadeveon Clowney.
His knee is sore. He’s being rested. He might start practicing again next week.
The Texans haven’t really said anything, and the linebacker’s absence is supposed to be cautionary. But Clowney was held out of the second week of training camp and did not suit up versus the 49ers in a joint session Friday.
And here we are all over again, for the third year in a row.
Clowney, the next Lawrence Taylor. Clowney, the perfect complement to J.J. Watt. Clowney, the no-brainer No. 1 overall pick who was going to help define Romeo Crennel’s defense, provide O’Brien with a massive building block to annual postseason runs and unleash the bulls on Kirby Drive again.
The real-life Clowney: 15 missed games, 11 starts, 4½ sacks and 47 combined tackles to his 23-year-old name.
The time is now
If the “Wheel of Fortune” was spinning, the pick the Texans couldn’t miss on is one letter away from being a B-U-S-_.
Not making it through the second week of camp isn’t the best way to keep the dreaded “T” off the board.
The Texans’ defense did fine without Clowney last year. The defense saved the team and season, and carried O’Brien’s crew to the AFC South title plus a home playoff game.
The Texans’ defense can live the good life without No. 90 again this year, if that’s what it comes to and the one-person MASHunit once affectionately known as JD fails for the third consecutive season. But for Clowney, this is the
year. The season. The time. And he knows it.
“Myteammates are counting on me, and I’m counting on myself to come out here and perform,” said Clowney on the second day of camp.
If he can’t do it now — Watt on the mend and a Week 1 question mark; a clean slate staring Clowney straight in the face — then it becomes impossible to think he’s ever going to.
And that could be a major problem for these Texans.
They can be good without Clowney. Heck, if Osweiler is the real thing, Lamar Miller makes us forget Arian Foster and DeAndre Hopkins has another All-Pro outburst, I can easily see a second consecutive division banner hanging from NRGStadium’s rafters after this campaign.
Spotlight gets brighter
But we don’t settle for wildcard games and just making the playoffs in this city, remember? We believe in the real thing: Super Bowls. And way back when the Texans passed on several young stars to make Clowney theirs, the franchise-changing idea was that the young man who delivered The Hit would be the crazy type of talent (paired with Watt) who could create a true contender in Houston for the first time since the Oilers last peaked.
Two injury-devastated seasons later?
If you invested in Clowney rookie cards, you either traded them all for a single Will Fuller or you’re nervously sitting on the stack, hoping No. 90’s act will one day come back in style.
And if your favorite team drafted Blake Bortles, Sammy Watkins, Khalil Mack, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham or Aaron Donald — all went in the top 13 in 2014 — you’re feeling pretty lucky two years after what more than ever appears to be a major Texans mistake.
We let a lot of things go this offseason. Brian Hoyer. Ryan Mallett’s ghost. Not having a quarterback and only having an offense when the season was on the line.
But Clowney? The spotlight will only zoom in brighter during Year Three.
“Clowney has a presence when he’s on the field,” Osweiler said. “You know when No. 90 is out there.”
On the field. Out there. Those are the magic words.
Only seeing is believing
After two years of being protected, defended and sometimes coddled, there won’t be any more hiding for JD.
He has worked his butt off and been a goofball at the same time.
He has done everything the teams has asked of him but rarely made a dent when it mattered.
He has had bad luck, bad timing and bad games, yet also flashed enough to make you go wide-eyed like it was 2013 at South Carolina all over again.
None of that matters in 2016. It’s put-up-or-shut-up time for the Texans and Clowney. It’s go big or fade away for a 6-5, 265-pound linebacker who has to finally start carrying real NFL weight now that Watt is potentially MIA.
“He really did a great job in the conditioning tests. He’s had a good offseason, been here a lot,” O’Brien said when camp began. “Even during the time off, when (the players) don’t have to be here, he’s been around. He’s working hard. … He came out ready to go.”
Publicly, O’Brien always has had Clowney’s back. But those words could have been said of any Texan in uniform during the grand early days of camp, when optimism shines and renewed hope defines all 32 teams.
Will O’Brien still be talking about Clowney in Week 8? Twelve? Seventeen?
“I know what I can do. … I’m going to come back and dominate the league.”
Clowney declared that just seven months ago. Now he’s sitting out practices again. Dominate? Clowney? We’ve never seen anything close to it. And we won’t believe the words until it finally happens — if it ever does.
He may yet become the best thing since Lawrence Taylor, but until he gets on the field, we can only wait to find out