4 Cleveland Browns worth scouting at mandatory minicamp

3. Jadeveon Clowney, EDGE

Another new defensive lineman to keep an eye on as the Cleveland Browns get together in Berea this week is the former No. 1 overall pick from South Carolina, Jadeveon Clowney. Originally taken by the Houston Texans in 2014, Clowney spent the past two seasons working on one-year deals as he was with the Seattle Seahawks in 2019 and the Tennessee Titans in 2020.

Clowney was pursued by Andrew Berry last year before he ultimately decided to join the Titans but he ended up playing in just eight games before a knee injury ended his season. That allowed Cleveland to land him this season at a much lower rate than they would have had to pay in 2020, but he has another injury now on top of many others suffered throughout his career.

For the powerful pass rusher, that’s been the one dark cloud lingering over his head. He’s a great defensive end who sets the edge in the run game as well as anyone and generates a ton of pressure — even if the sack numbers don’t match that — but he cannot stay on the field.

Because of that, he may have to continue to play on the short deals but that doesn’t mean he can’t turn out to be a great addition to the Cleveland roster. Tuesday will offer up our first glimpse of him in the orange and brown and it will be the first time we see him and Myles Garrett ‚— the No. 1 pick from 2017 — practicing together.

Again with the team not in pads yet, we won’t see everything Clowney has to offer but we can see how well he moves which will let us know if the knee is healthy. It will also just be fun to see him in the Browns colors.