Releasing Crawford would free up $8 million in cap space.
That freed up money should allow for enough cap space to sign Clowney to a 1 year prove it deal at $16 million (it is being reported he turned down a $15 million one year deal with the Browns) since he remains a free agent late into the offseason.
In my view, this move has a few benefits:
1) Clowney is a better player than Crawford and has a much higher ceiling.
Clowney has 32 sacks in his 6 years in the NFL and that is including his rookie year where it was cut short to only 4 games because of injury. Since then, Clowney has missed a total of 9 games in 5 seasons.
Crawford, on the other hand, has had 23 sacks in 8 seasons. That does include the 2013 season where he was IRd for an ACL injury he suffered in training camp. He remained healthy after that, but he only played 4 games last season after having another injury that brought his season to an end.
2) Clowney has better position flexibility than Crawford does. Clowney can playe DE or move inside if needed. Crawford is a better 3T than a DE, which is where he is expected to play a majority of the time.
3) Signing Clowney to a 1 year deal will make him want to play at a high level at all times and tough out injuries.
4) Clowney is only 27 and Crawford is 30. Clowney is more apt to have a big year, which would improve his market dramatically next year. We wouldn't be able to sign him, but he would yield us a 3rd round comp pick in 2022.
Bring in Clowney and say goodbye to Crawford.