INDIANAPOLIS — Jadeveon Clowney thinks the Texans should ask Peyton Manning if they have any doubts about making him the No. 1 pick in May’s NFL Draft.
“You see the Super Bowl championship game?” Clowney said. “Defense won that game, shut them down. … It takes defense to win a championship. Hands down. Seattle proved that. You had a great quarterback in Peyton Manning, hats off to him also, but defense wins the Super Bowl. ”
Clowney arrived in Indianapolis with lofty expectations about what he can show teams in the on-field workouts. The South Carolina defensive end said he expects to run the 40-yard dash in a blistering 4.4 seconds. If he does that, it will be hard for the Texans to pass up on him. He reportedly measured at 6-foot-5 ¼, 266 pounds and has 34 ½-inch arms.
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier criticized Clowney’s work ethic this week, but he did not want to respond to his coach.
“I don’t really have nothing to say about it,” Clowney said. “I believe I did work hard. You pull out any practice tape from last year, you’ll see that. That’s what I told them. I’ll tell everybody that. I will always be working hard. No matter where I end up I am going to work hard and give a team everything I’ve got.”
There was talk that Clowney might leave school after his dynamic 2012 season, but he said that was “nonsense.” He did admit he would have left if that had been an option, but the NFL requires players to complete three years of college.
He had a lot of pressure on him in 2013, especially after he delivered the hit of the year during last season’s Outback Bowl on Michigan running back Vincent Smith, knocking his helmet off and leading to endless replays on ESPN.
But Clowney had just 40 tackles, 11 ½ tackles for a loss and three sacks in 11 games in 2013. He had 13 sacks and 23 ½ tackles for a loss the year before.
“Going into last season I had a lot of high expectations of myself,” Clowney said. “Things don’t always happen like you plan on.”