Philadelphia Eagles: Josh Sweat has low-key Jadeveon Clowney upside

Don’t underestimate Josh Sweat, Philadelphia Eagles fans.

For the second-straight year, the Philadelphia Eagles did not add an edge rusher of note in either free agency or the NFL draft.

Sure the team made a few moves to improve on the margins, trading for Genard Avery, re-signing Vinny Curry, drafting Shareef Miller and retaining preseason hero Daeshon Hall – even if he seldom actually played – but at large, the Eagles’ defensive rotation has been on the decline since their peak performance back in 2017.

And in a weird twist of fate, maybe that’s intentional.

Sure, the Eagles could – and if you ask some fans, should – go out and pay top dollar for their favorite big-name pass rusher like Ezekiel Ansah, Everson Griffen, or Jadeveon Clowney, but maybe they don’t want to.

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You see, when Chris Long and the Eagles ultimately failed to reach an agreement for the free-agent edge to return to the team in 2019, it was because he didn’t want to play “10-15 base plays a game“. 10-15 snaps? Seriously? In theory, Long should have been able to return to the very same role he had in 2018 and play some 500-550 snaps as the Birds’ third edge rusher, right? It’s not like the team added anyone else to steal away his snaps save for Curry – who is really more of an inside rusher on passing downs.

Clearly, if the Eagles were willing to move on from a two-time Super Bowl champion who was loved intensely in the locker room, there had to be someone pretty special coming up the pipeline to replace him.

It’s… complicated.

Unsurprisingly, Jim Schwartz opted to use Curry as his top reserve lineman coming off the edge, as he played roughly 39 percent of the team’s defensive snaps (393). This sort of veteran preference is rather unsurprising, as the Eagles as a whole had a thing for older players in 2019, but to be fair, Curry’s on-field performance warranted the playing time he was awarded, as he picked up five sacks, seven hurries, six QB hits, and 18 pressures in his return-to-form 31-year-old season.

But followed close behind Curry was Josh Sweat, the 130th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, who logged a career-high 352 snaps as a second-year pro.

Logging roughly 22 snaps a game in 2019 – twice as many as Long was offered – Sweat picked up four sacks, five hurries, five QB hits, and 15 pressures to go with 21 combined tackles.

While those pass-rushing numbers are more or less what you’d expect from a fourth defensive end who plays roughly one out of every third defensive snap, where Sweat really made his bones in 2019 was as a run defender, where his 11.1 run-stuffing percentage ranked second overall among players who played at least 80 snaps against the run.

Throw it all together, and the Philadelphia Eagles have a pretty intriguing 23-year-old option who could potentially develop into something down the line – or maybe now.

With Curry gone and no player – as of yet – signed to take his place on the outside, it’s safe to say Sweat will be the Eagles’ third defensive end coming off the bench in reserve of Brandan Graham and Derek Barnett. Could Sweat end up matching the 612 snaps Long played in 2018 or even the 496 snaps he played in 2017? What if he plays even more?

On a team loaded up with big, aggressive bull rushers like Graham and Barnett on the outside, Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave on the inside, and Malik Jackson capable of doing both, Sweat is one of the few defensive linemen on the Eagles’ roster who ran a sub-4.6 40-yard dash coming out of college.

Do you know who else is a speedy, 6-foot-5 250-pound defensive end with A-plus production against the run? None other than the apple of many fans’ eyes, Jadeveon Clowney.

Now before you ask, no, Sweat isn’t Clowney now and may never be, but real-life Clowney isn’t the player many fans envision when his name is evoked. Despite his elite college pedigree, Clowney has never recorded a 10 sack season as a pro, instead making his money – eventually – as a violent, pocket collapsing, run-stuffing force on the exterior.

In 2019, Sweat had half as many pressures as Clowney and one more sack on half as many snaps, showcasing a pair of players who in theory could perform similarity in whatever the NFL equivalent is of the All-48 – he probably wouldn’t, as Sweat has never played more than 400 snaps since college and the law of diminishing returns would all but certainly settle in, but on paper, the duo are very similar players.

Heck, the Gamecocks and Seminoles ever wear similar red and black color schemes, making the two dreaded, single-digit pass rushers hard to differentiate on tape.

An unquestioned 5-star recruit going into college, Sweat saw injury after injury slowly chip away at his hype and bring down his stock from a Clowney-esque first-round pick to an eventual late-fourth round draftee by the then-Super Bowl champions. Had Sweat been able to ball out unencumbered, maybe he’d have been regarded in the same light as eventual Washington Redskins’ draftee Montez Sweat, and be the star of a few assumedly lucrative Old Spice commercials. Instead, he’s viewed by some as expendable at worst or just a guy at best.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think that’s a tad unfair.

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Will Josh Sweat develop into the next Jadeveon Clowney? Maybe not, maybe so, but even Jadeveon Clowney wasn’t Jadeveon Clowney until his fourth professional season, as a slew of injuries and unfortunate situations limited his abilities to shine as a pro. With a similar skillset and an oppertunity to see the field with regularity, the Philadelphia Eagles would do good to continue to give Sweat chances to sink or swim against live opponents, regardless of down and distance.

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