Free agency in late July usually means scraps, but Jadeveon Clowney is still out there, and the Browns are apparently intrigued enough to bring him in for a look. Per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, the 33-year-old pass rusher is visiting Cleveland today as the team continues hunting for depth up front.
The news broke on socials Wednesday afternoon, with Clowney's visit confirmed via Garafolo's reporting.
This isn't Clowney's first rodeo in Cleveland. He spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Browns, racking up 11 sacks combined, before things got weird at the end. He was sent home before the 2022 season finale after publicly airing frustrations about how the team was using him, which made a return trip feel unlikely for a while.
But football has a short memory when a guy can still get after the quarterback. Clowney bounced from Cleveland to Baltimore to Carolina to Dallas, and last season with the Cowboys he posted 8.5 sacks over 13 games, still very much a productive rotational piece even as he approaches his mid-30s.
Late July visits like this usually mean a team wants an extra look before training camp bodies start banging into each other, or that talks have quietly been building behind the scenes. Either way, the Browns clearly think there's more juice left in the tank, and Clowney himself has said as much publicly while searching for his next home.
If a deal actually gets done, it's one of those stories that writes itself: the guy who got shipped out mid-controversy comes back a few years later because the phone stopped ringing everywhere else. Whether it works out better the second time around is the only question left to answer.