Two former South Carolina football players can be misjudged based on their production in 2020. Top defenders Jadeveon Clowney and Melvin Ingram Both enjoyed incredible NFL seasons after being two of the best players in college football for the Gamecocks. Production in 2020 for each fell, however, and free agent brokers may be undervalued because of this in the off-season.
In this story of Focus on professional football, both Clowney and Ingram put pressure on the passer in 2020, but they just couldn’t make it to the quarterback in time.
According to PFF data, Ingram had 28 pressures at 219 rapid pass pressures, while Clowney had 28 pressures at 258 rapid pass pressures. His grades as a player were still very good, although the traditional quarterback sack statistic did not reflect the kind of production one would expect as a high-value defender.
Here’s what PFF wrote about the pair of previous Gamecocks:
It made sense to group these two players together. Both are proven and veteran options – with Ingram being a little longer than Clowney – who are coming out of seasons shortened by injuries, in which they have not recorded a single sack. It is not as if none of the players had reached the quarterback when they were on the field.
Ingram and Clowney still had pressure rates north of 10% and PFF grades above 70.0 in 2020, and signs point to zeroes in the bag column being more a result of bad variation than a significant decline in its game.
For Clowney, however, the lack of bags is a recurring theme. Over a four-year period, from 2016 to 2019, its 220 pressures were tied for the 13th highest mark by any top defender in the NFL, but its 26 sacks for the PFF count were tied at 36 – most in the same group. Potential teams can expect him to play the race well and find himself consistently in the backfield, but he looks like a rare case of a player whose layoff rate repeatedly follows his pressure rate.
Clowney suffered another season full of injuries in 2020 and was placed on the injury reserve in Week 11. He had 19 stops in total this year and forced a fumble. He had four defended passes and four racing animals.
Ingram also fell in late November. He totaled just 10 tackles in the season and had an interception. He also hit a pair of passes.
There weren’t many highlights for the old Gamecocks pair in 2020 and both are now free agents. Both may also be undervalued as advocates for the free agent market this year.