When it comes to Jadeveon Clowney, the Texans are all about hammering out a long-term deal.
"I won't discuss our negotiations publicly, but I'm optimistic that something can be done," Houston general manager Brian Gaine said Friday at the team's pre-draft news conference, per Sarah Barshop of ESPN.
Clowney is set to play this season under a fifth-year option agreement that will pay him more than $12 million. The Texans have been working for some time to seal up the terrorizing defensive end to a new deal, with NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reporting last month the sides had "made some progress," but "there was still a ways to go" on a pact that could come a "couple of months from now."
The MMQB's Albert Breer described the pending contract between Clowney and the Texans as a "mega-extension."
"[I like his] height, weight, [and] speed," Gaine said of Clowney, not Albert Breer. "The production, the performance, the pass-rush ability. The guy's a disruptive player. He plays the run well. So we're doing our best to fortify our nucleus of players, and we'd like him to be a part of it."
Gaine's praise of Clowney is almost an understatement. The first-overall pick of 2014 has emerged as one of the game's true havoc-wreaking, run-detonating physical freaks.
The vision of a healthy Clowney, J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus still doubles as a tantalizing dreamland for Texans fans -- especially now that a starry quarterback has been found on the other side of the ball in Deshaun Watson.
It might take some time, but the Texans will get this contract done. Book it.
