Clowney is ready to be molded into a Monster

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Let me start off with this: I am now convinced that the Texans need to draft Clowney No. 1 overall.

Of course, I haven't broken down any of the other prospects in depth yet, so take that with a grain of salt. I came to this conclusion because I am also now convinced that Clowney is a 3-4 rush outside linebacker.

This kid is friggin' amazing in space. I'm not sure a left tackle or tight end successfully blocked him a single time in space in any of the games that I watched. He jumps inside so quickly that the opposing player just doesn't have enough time to react. When he chooses to stay outside against a block in space, he just about always holds the edge and quite a few times ends up making the tackle for a loss.

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Only one out of the five teams double-teamed Clowney less than half of the time on those plays: North Carolina. It's worth noting that while the announcers for that game excoriated Clowney for his effort on a few plays, the guy showed up all over the place most of the game. He didn't get the sack, but it was his edge pressure that forced the UNC quarterback up into the pocket to get sacked with the Tar Heels backed up near their own end zone. Clowney also beat a cut block near the end of the game to get a hit on the quarterback.

I'd say if they had it to do over again, I highly doubt the Tar Heels would single-block Clowney as much.

The opposite side of the spectrum came against Arkansas. The Razorbacks double-teamed him on seven out of the eight passes that I thought were legitimate opportunities for him to get a good pass rush.

Seven out of eight.

Missouri doubled Clowney on 16 out of the 25 plays where I thought he legitimately had an opportunity to rush the passer. He looked bad on a few plays, but Clowney was still all over Missouri's quarterback even with all those double teams. He forced one sack by containing the quarterback on a bootleg action. On another play, he bull-rushed the left tackle all the way into the quarterback, which forced him up into pressure from the defensive tackles. The throw should have been intercepted by running over the Missouri running back who was trying to cut block him.

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