Baltimore Ravens should replace Earl Thomas with Jadeveon Clowney

Ravens should use available cap space for Jadeveon Clowney.

Sometimes the pieces just fall into place, and that seems to be the case for the Baltimore Ravens and free agent edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney.

Clowney was traded by Houston to Seattle before the 2019 season and after having a pretty decent season he became a free agent. He thought it would be a lucrative venture, but Clowney remains unsigned and there seems to be little movement on that changing.

Enter: The Ravens.

Baltimore released safety Earl Thomas last week after he got into an on-field altercation with teammate Chuck Clark. Thomas, who was viewed as a veteran leadership signing back in 2019, leaves a whole on the Ravens defense that could be plugged by Clowney, thus ending his offseason-long unemployment streak.

Baltimore Ravens rumors: Signing Jadeveon Clowney is a no-brainer

With Thomas gone, the Ravens have immediately opened up $6 million of cap space which, coupled with Super Bowl aspirations, should entice Clowney to make a deal. A sticking point for the pass rusher has been money, as he’s refused to settle for less than he thinks he’s worth. Clowney is well within his rights to do that, but his hardball approach has resulted in mere rumors of a signing, not an actual pen-to-paper situation.

He wouldn’t have to sign long-term and could use the Ravens juice in 2020 to get paid the following offseason. That was the plan when he was traded to Seattle, and while it’s not ideal that he’ll have to restart his plan it might be his best option. There are worse places to try and flex your talents than on a team viewed by many to be second to only the Chiefs when it comes to Super Bowl hype.

Thomas is a great safety and the Ravens will miss him, but they wouldn’t have cut him if they didn’ think they could live without him. In order to give the defense some new star power and a chance of containing the Chiefs, they must get Clowney to wear the purple and black.