No. 1 pick Clowney signs 4-year, $22M deal

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The dominoes for the first-round of the 2014 NFL Draft should really start falling soon now that Jadeveon Clowney has signed with the Texans.

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle first reported the deal, which the Texans announced on Friday. Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick in May's draft, inked a four-year contract.

Clowney became the 18th first-round pick to sign a contract and, logically, the rest will start filling in now that the No. 1 pick has signed.

His deal, per the new CBA, will also contain a fifth-year team option. McClain reports the deal is worth $22.27 million, slightly up in terms of rookie contracts, but appropriately slotted.

Even though he's transitioning to linebacker in a 3-4 defense (Clowney was primarily a 4-3 rush end at South Carolina), the freakishly athletic Clowney pairing with J.J. Watt should give first-year defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel the ability to wreak havoc on opposing offenses.

Clowney signed crazy early: Eric Fisher of the Chiefs (2013) agreed to his contract on July 26 last year while 2012's top pick, Andrew Luck of the Colts, signed on July 19.

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Bills looking to pick up the pace even more on offense



If I was to ask you which offense ran the most plays per game last season, I bet the Eagles would be a popular answer. An incorrect one, but probably popular. They were 12th in plays per game. Still, it is not a surprise that the Broncos and Patriots top the list. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were the only two quarterbacks heading an offense that ran more than 70 plays than game.Who was No. 3 at 69.75 plays per game? Would you believe E.J. Manuel and the Bills? Believe it. And before Manuel's knee injury in Week 5, the Bills were running 72 plays per game. Now entering his second season, Manuel has a firmer grasp on the offense, and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett wants to run more plays."We look back at last year, and those first four games when E.J. had a lot of run going on, it was awesome," Hackett said via Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News. "We were really rolling. It's funny. You look back on it and as the season went on, with the changes we had at that position, it slowed down."The better we get, the more we have of the understanding of the offense, the faster we can go."



The easy takeaway here is that more plays mean more opportunities for fantasy points. Hackett praised Manuel on how rapidly he has gained an understanding of the offense, but I'm not taking a big leap when I say he is not Manning nor Brady. I'm very interested in rookie Sammy Watkins as a WR3 this season, but I don't trust that Manuel will be good enough as a passer this year to make more than one wide receiver consistently worth starting in fantasy. Mike Williams and Robert Woods should have their moments, but I'm not really buying there. I think it will be a couple of years before Manuel is anything more than a low-end QB2.