Jadeveon Clowney's off-Field Foibles a Symptom of Houston's Dysfunction

Texans outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney is stuck. 

The No. 1 overall pick is the victim of an NFL culture that will only be won over the second his off-field or on-field exploits match those of the man creating a shadow for him: world-class defensive end J.J. Watt. Houston's struggles, as well as Clowney's inability to play through the vague "illness" that kept him out last week, have put Clowney under the microscope.

Speaking through the media, the Texans challenged Clowney with a statement of disappointment. Per NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, they were frustrated Clowney didn't suit up on Sunday. During last Sunday's game, Clowney liked a picture on Instagram, which was used as immediate evidence that Clowney's heart and effort weren't in the game by every armchair psychologist on the Internet. 

Houston's foray into public relations ended with head coach Bill O'Brien playing Good Cop to the anonymously sourced bad cop. O'Brien told the Houston Chronicle's Brian T. Smith that Houston was moving on from the "controversy," with a flash of aw-shucks-coach-don't-know-about-social-media charm.

"

This guy wants to play football. He’s trying to get better to get back on the field. I’m not going down this Twitter road. I don’t even know what that is, really, to be honest with you. Instagram, my kid was trying to talk to me about it last night. Like, ‘This is what Instagram is, daddy’. I don’t know. We’re moving on from that. We’re moving on.

"

This, of course, was used as evidence by the "Back in My Day" talking head segment on NFL Live, where Warren Sapp (who has never done anything wrong on the field) and LaDainian Tomlinson (who never had his motivation questioned at all during his career) shouted down Clowney for how "disappointing" he has been. 

Finally, the Texans went ahead and did what they could to further suppress the story by blocking media access to Clowney.

The whole situation was a master class in how to create bad PR, which is really something the Texans should be avoiding given how poorly their whole "Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard so we're sure he's smart" gambit has paid off. 

So let's cut past all this yammering and get to the real point: The Texans have every right to be disappointed that Clowney has not been healthy. (Of course, he may have been healthy all along had the Texans replaced their god-awful turf in a timely manner, but let's be charitable here.) Calling him out via the media is the kind of tough-guy turkey jive that disguises itself as "motivation" but really is just throwing a player under the bus to make management look and feel a little better about the decision to pick him No. 1 overall. 

Clowney has showcased his rare talent when he's been on the field. He looked downright dominant in the preseason. When healthy, he should be the sort of elite edge-rusher the Texans wanted to pair with Watt.

Frankly, I think what we're seeing here is the ugly lashouts of a regime that knows it is finished in Houston. Even owner Bob McNair's patience—and remember, McNair is the man who kept Gary Kubiak as his head coach for eight seasons—isn't inexhaustible. General manager Rick Smith's roster just hasn't been good enough to keep winning. The upper-level talent is there, but the back of the roster is held together with duct tape, and the large contract extension for linebacker Brian Cushing looks like a massive mistake a little over a year later. 

Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

That's not to say Smith is a bad general manager. Talent evaluators only get so many cracks at the art, and Houston's last few drafts have not provided much in the way of instant help. In fact, only three of Smith's nine 2013 draft picks—including five in the first 124 picks—are still on the roster as of today. Some of them failed off the field, some of them failed on the training table and some of them failed because they just weren't talented enough. There are a litany of ways an NFL player can wash off a roster, and Smith hit them all. 

There's nothing keeping Smith from playing a Charlie Casserly role in the future, reminding us all that he selected Jadeveon Clowney with the No. 1 overall pick—a la Casserly's role in selecting Mario Williams—from a fancy desk job. Well, nothing except McNair, that is. Clowney's slow start now means as little as Williams' slow start (4.5 sacks in his rookie season) did then. 

But what is clear is that change must come. The Texans have again failed to put together a roster good enough to compete for the playoffs, with or without Clowney. (I know, shocking that the plan to put all the eggs in the Ryan Fitzpatrick basket didn't come through.) And because of that, we'll likely continue to see anonymously sourced lashouts through the rest of the season as the front office struggles to accept its fate. 

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Three-Cone Drill podcast. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.