Clowney Question Bro- Why SC's Freak Will Not Be The #1 Pick

There is no doubt in my mind that Jadeveon Clowney will be a solid NFL player.  He is an athletic freak of nature, standing at 6'6, weighing around 250 lbs.  He is fast, agile and strong.  Teams have been double or triple-teaming him, yet he can still find ways to impact plays.  Does the fact that he seems to take some plays off concern me?  A little, but not enough to say that he isn't a Top 5 pick in the NFL Draft.  But that's it.

Top 5.

Not #1.  Sorry.

He's a defensive end.  An important position?  Sure.  But the NFL isn't all about defense anymore.  It's a quarterback league, and some of the teams that are in line to pick #1 overall need a QB a lot more than a pass rusher.  You can't tell me that the Jacksonville Jaguars might be on the clock, looking at Teddy Bridgewater, Taj Boyd, Johnny Football, Aaron Murray, AJ McCarron, etc. and then really say that they aren't more important than Clowney is.  A good QB, hell even a halfway decent QB, can turn a bad team into a playoff contender.

Want an example?  Well, the Kansas City Chiefs had the #1 overall pick last year.  Worst team in the league, even though they had 6 Pro Bowl players.  They lacked a QB, so they got Alex Smith.  Now they are 5-0 and look to at least make the playoffs as a wild card (the Broncos are winning that division).  The New Orleans Saints were mired in obscurity for years.  Cue Drew Brees, and they become relevant.  My Washington Redskins were a joke for the better part of 20 years.  They get a healthy RG3 last year and made the playoffs (not so much this year while he recovers from his injury).  A QB has his hands on the ball every single offensive snap.  Even the best defensive ends have a major impact on MAYBE 5 or 6 plays a game.

So, no, Clowney will not be the #1 pick if it is Jacksonville, Tampa, or Minnesota.  He could be in the mix for struggling teams that have a franchise QB though, such as the Giants, Steelers, Raiders or Rams, even though I think they all have bigger needs along their respective offensive lines.

The perfect fit for Clowney?  How about in Atlanta, where injuries have decimated the Falcons pass rush.  Plug him into that defense, coupled with a fully healthy Falcons offense in 2014, and the Dirty Birds would be back to the Super Bowl contenders people expected them to be this year.

I still think Jacksonville is far and away the worst team in football, and they need a QB, so Clowney will not be the #1 pick.  But to all the analysts that seem to be jumping ship on him, saying that he could fall out of the Top 10 even with all of his ability and questioning his prospects as a pro, I just have one thing to say:

That's a clown question bro.