If the Tennessee Titans were to sign Jadeveon Clowney in free agency, his coaches believe he’d have no issue making the transition to a new team.
The reason for that is familiarity, as Clowney has multiple coaches he played under as a member of the Houston Texans in Nashville.
Those coaches include head coach Mike Vrabel, who was his linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator in 2017, and linebackers coach Shane Bowen who was a defensive assistant in Houston.
Bowen, who was one of multiple coaches to speak to the media during a Zoom call on Tuesday, admits he has no idea what will happen with Clowney, but thinks the pass-rusher wouldn’t have much trouble transitioning if he were to sign with the Titans, per David Boclair of Sports Illustrated.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Bowen said. “Between Vrabel, (general manager Jon Robinson), they make those decisions. His name hasn’t come across my desk. It’s above my pay scale. I coach the guys that are here.
“But in terms of familiarity, anytime you got a guy who is familiar with the system, I don’t care who it is, it speeds the process up in terms of making the transition. We’ll see how things work out.”
Anthony Midget, who is the former secondary coach for the Texans and now currently holds that position with the Titans, agreed with Bowen about a player’s familiarity helping the process of transition along, except he used newly-signed veteran corner Johnathan Joseph as an example.
“There’s things that I can say to him [Joseph] in the meeting, just the same terminology that we used in Houston that translates to what we’re doing here,” Midget said. “It helps with the transition and helps those guys learn the playbook.”
How much longer we’ll have to wait for a Clowney decision remains to be seen, but the last we heard the Titans “continue to monitor” the situation.
What we really don’t know exactly is what other teams are involved, and if any of them will beat the Titans out for the biggest fish left in free agency.
