In news that's especially relevant to the Ravens fan who likes to torture his or herself with what-ifs, a report from ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio asserts that Baltimore would've been the team that ended up with defensive end/linebacker Jadeveon Clowney, and not the Saints (as was reported a day earlier), if the NFL had allowed a wild sign-and-trade to take place.
Anyway, he ended up signing with the Titans on a one-year contract, so consider this a scenario for an alternate universe.
For those of you saying "What does that mean? Why did I click on this?" let us do our best to answer.
In an effort to get creative in order to add Clowney to their defense, the Saints asked the league if they could work around the salary cap by getting another team (thought to be the Browns) to take on part of his contract and then flip him to New Orleans for a second-round draft pick. Like someone putting an end to some Monopoly fuckshit, the NFL said the teams couldn't do that.
This sounds like a very unique approach, but it apparently wasn't so unique that another team hadn't also hatched a similar plan. As Florio writes, had the league allowed such a transaction to occur, it was the Ravens who would have gotten Clowney by way of a similar sign-and-trade agreement with the Jaguars.
When the league said no to the Saints, the Ravens gave up on their plan.
As we said above, Clowney signed a one-year-deal with the Titans that's worth $13 million, and could jump to $15 million via incentives.
So do your best to remember this should Tennessee and Baltimore meet up in the playoffs.
