The New Orleans Saints nearly made NFL history in attempting the first sign-and-trade maneuver in football over the weekend, angling to swap a draft pick and player with another team that would have agreed to foot the bill against the salary cap for free agent pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney. But the NFL office reportedly wouldn’t approve such a deal, and Clowney ended up signing outright with the Tennessee Titans.
But it might be for the best that the Saints didn’t get the green light from the league office they were looking for. Mike Florio reported for NBC Sports that if the Saints had received league approval for a Clowney sign-and-trade, another pair of teams were standing by to pull off the same trick before the Saints would be able to: the Baltimore Ravens.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirmed that report, clarifying that the Ravens had been exploring a similar proposal with the Jacksonville Jaguars before the NFL squashed the Saints’ attempt. It’s anyone guess where the Ravens got wind of these negotiations, but they were among Clowney’s preferred teams and, like the Saints, running short on salary cap space. It makes sense that they would have tried to take a leaf from New Orleans’ playbook.
This is true. Baltimore explored this over the last few days. https://t.co/yL55oNnW0t
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 7, 2020
