Saints deserve credit for Clowney pursuit but cupboard isn’t bare at defensive end

So the NFL would not allow a creative attempt for the New Orleans Saints to acquire Jadeveon Clowney.

Does that surprise you?

Regardless of whether you feel this is the latest example of how the league despises the Saints or not, Clowney will not be wearing black and gold and that is all that matters.

The fact that Sean Payton and coaches went to Texas to woo Clowney tells you that they wanted his services pretty badly.

The fact that Mickey Loomis and his colonels came up with such a creative effort to obtain Clowney through a third party while saving money tells you the Saints wanted Clowney’s services very badly.

The immensely creative sign-and-trade effort of the Saints is to be commended for a team with huge salary cap issues but a team that unquestionably has a good enough team to win the Super Bowl this season.

How badly will the Saints miss Clowney?

The fact that he ended up with an AFC team and not an NFC rival softens the blow.

So, too, does the presence of Cam Jordan, Marcus Davenport and Trey Hendrickson. In addition, Carl Granderson has shown some promise.

Jordan is an elite performer.

Davenport, when healthy, has shown that he can disrupt things. Will he live up to the sizeable investment New Orleans made in him? This is the year we likely find out and if he does, not getting Clowney will be a minor blip on the radar screen, if even that.

If Hendrickson continues to perform the way he performed last year when healthy, that will also mitigate not having Clowney on board.

NFL’s Next Gen Stats ranked Hedrickson second only to Za’Darius Smith of Green Bay among the top 10 players that faced double teams at the highest rate when rushing the passer off the edge in 2019.

Incidentally, Clowney ranked third on the same list while Jordan was eighth.

Clowney has been a good, sometimes very good NFL player but certainly has not lived up to being the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, as he was, in 2014.

Clowney has only played all 16 games once in six seasons.

He has 32 sacks with his high water mark being 9.5 sacks in 2017, when he also posted a career-best 59 tackles.

The fact is that the team that drafted Clowney first overall, the Houston Texans, traded him away to Seattle.

Now, he is about to join his third NFL team.

Hendrickson played in 13 games a year ago, recording 19 tackles, including 4.5 sacks as he is set to enter his fourth season in the league.

Davenport, a first-round pick in 2018, is entering his third year in the NFL.

Davenport has missed six games in two seasons with injuries and has played hurt some of the time.

Davemport had 31 tackles, including six sacks, a year ago and has 10.5 sacks in his two seasons in the league.

Granderson enters his second season after playing in eight games a year ago and he is a little bigger and has drawn compliments for the camp he had this year.

You know what you have in Cam Jordan.

In the final analysis, give the Saints great credit for trying to improve the team by adding Clowney. Give the Saints credit for attempting to do so without breaking the bank and destroying the financial standing of the squad. He would not have been worth that kind of investment.

Clowney would have been a good addition to a very good team but it was not to be. Now, let us watch Davenport and Hendrickson try to take the next step forward in their young, promising careers.