Commentary: Appreciating Adrian Clayborn
Adrian Clayborn is very good.
This statement should be equal on the Obvious Scale to declarations such as: Justin Bieber’s hair is ugly, Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster is going to lose his job, and the Kansas City Royals will never be good at baseball.
As a sports writer, statistics are useful, but nothing annoys me more than when they’re misused. Through four games, Clayborn had no sacks and one-and-a-half tackles for loss. Those aren’t exactly All-American numbers.
Heck, defensive tackle Mike Daniels had three sacks and seven-and-a-half tackles for loss over that same span.
So, predictably, I spent my week reading and hearing about how Clayborn had been shut down in the first third of the season.
Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel declared that Clayborn had been “relatively quiet” thus far. Friends and classmates raved over Daniels’ emergence, wondering aloud whether he was more important to the defense than Clayborn.
This, of course, is laughable — and Clayborn spent the 24-3 victory over Penn State reminding a national-television audience why he’s regarded as a top-five NFL talent.
The 6-4, 285-pound defensive end bullrushed and stunted his way to an incredible performance against Penn State’s bulky offensive front. Despite being double-teamed all game — and having Nittany Lions running back Evan Royster shaded toward the left side to help — Clayborn lived in Penn State’s backfield.
If Kinnick Stadium’s turf was still natural grass, opposing quarterback Rob Bolden’s jersey would have been littered with memories of Clayborn.
He even gave stat geeks and draft gurus reason to hop back on the Clayborn bandwagon, recording his first sack of the season and three tackles for loss against the Nittany Lions.
But here’s the thing: It’s ridiculous anyone ever found reason to doubt his ability.
Football players, coaches, and talent evaluators live by a simple saying: The eye in the sky doesn’t lie. The tape is what’s most important in grading a player’s ability — not statistics. I’m not a scout, but from my view, Clayborn’s tape had been nothing less that extraordinary through four games.
I can’t tell you how many times he has beaten his opposing offensive lineman, only to have a running back waiting for him or the quarterback getting rid of the ball.
His play against Penn State Saturday only affirmed that fact.
On the game’s most important play — Penn State’s fourth-and-goal attempt from Iowa’s 1-yard line — the Nittany Lions consciously called a play to the right side of the offensive formation, away from Clayborn.
Consequently, defensive lineman Christian Ballard made the game-sealing play.
This kind of respect can’t be translated into numbers. But the eye in the sky doesn’t lie.
Even when Clayborn was “relatively quiet,” offensive lines still double-teamed him, quarterbacks still tracked his every pre-snap moved, and coaches still devised plans to take him out of the game.
Just ask Bolden, Nick Foles, Austen Arnaud, Kelly Page, Keith Wenning, and Brandon Large — all the quarterbacks Iowa has faced — how they think Clayborn has played. I’m pretty sure they’d give All-American reviews.
So, yes, Adrian Clayborn is very good.
Ignore the first four games. Ignore the statistics. Ignore what the national pundits are telling you. He is still a dominant force up front.
It’s just a shame it took five games for everyone to remember that.
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