3 former Cleveland Browns seen as missing pieces

2. Former Browns EDGE, Jadeveon Clowney, to the Saints

It's nearly training camp, so it feels like the right time for Jadeveon Clowney to finally sign with a team.

Despite playing just two seasons in Cleveland, Clowney wore out his welcome due to three years of speculation that drug on forever. In 2020, he was tied to the Browns but after a lot of back and forth, he finally signed with the Tennessee Titans.

Then in 2021, Cleveland did land Clowney — after another long offseason of wondering if he would join. He then had one of the best campaigns of his entire career.

Playing across from Myles Garrett, Clowney had 37 tackles, nine sacks, and pressured the quarterback 32 times. Again, this led to a long offseason where he finally signed late but then his production fell off a cliff.

Clowney had just 12 pressures all season and finished with two sacks. While this was all frustrating, it was nothing compared to the comments he made at the end of the season.

Despite reports that he refused to go into a game unless it was beneficial to him, he claimed the coaching staff worked too hard to appease Myles Garrett and took some unnecessary shots at the Browns leading defensive end — saying he was 95 percent sure he wouldn't return in 2023.

Cleveland made it 100 percent certain and asked him not to join them for their final game of the year.

Now, Spielberger is saying Clowney would be a good fit for the New Orleans Saints. They did lose Marcus Davenport in the offseason but in all honesty, they would probably be just fine rolling with Cameron Jordan and Carl Granderson with Isaiah Foskey as their top reserve.

The main issue with him landing with the Saints is that New Orleans hired Joe Woods as defensive coordinator, who was the defensive coach in Cleveland the past two seasons. There's no way he's going to want to dip his toes back into those waters with Clowney.