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Head coach Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.

There wasn’t much for the New England Patriots to like about their flaccid, 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week One. But head coach Mike Vrabel could perhaps take some encouragement from his team’s pass rush, which sacked Raiders quarterback Geno Smith four times.

That means that after one week, the Patriots have already reached 14 percent of their entire sack total in 2024, when they managed just 28 — worst in the NFL.

Edge rusher Harold Landry III, signed to a three-year, $43.5 million free agent contract in the offseason, led the defensive charge, accounting for 2 1/2 of the Patriots sacks, adding four quarterback hits and three tackles for lost yardage.

Patriots Defense Still Needs Upgrade

But New England’s defense still clearly has a long way to go, after finishing at or near the bottom of the league in multiple categories. Despite Landry’s standout pass rushing effort on Sunday, he was rated as only the 21st ranked pass rusher in the NFL for the week by Pro Football Focus.

The Patriots, however, still lead the league in available salary cap space with $53.5 million available to spend. They could certainly use some of that to further upgrade their pass defense.

On Wednesday, they may have been handed a unique opportunity to do just that, thanks to a strange reluctance by the Dallas Cowboys to make the same signing. The 2014 No. 1 overall draft pick, 6-foot-5, 266-pound Jadeveon Clowney, visited the Cowboys practice on Wednesday — and was widely excepted to sign with Dallas to help fill the void left by the trade owner and general manager Jerry Jones made to send four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers.

Clowney Departs Dallas Empty-Handed

But in what Fansided writer Michael Bohlin deemed a “fail” on the part of the Cowboys, the 32-year-old Clowney walked out the Cowboys facility empty-handed.

“When it’s Jerry Jones and the Cowboys, one can never get too excited about a potential signing or a trade,” wrote Cem Yolbulan of SportDFW. “This organization will find a way to drag its feet after injecting its fans with some hope and optimism. And it looks like that is exactly what happened on Wednesday.”

With Clowney, who has recorded 15 sacks and 30 tackles for loss over his past two seasons, still unexpectedly available, the 11-year veteran could compliment Landry to boost the Patriots pass rush and stymie opposing offenses while the New England offense figures out how to score points.

Vrabel Connection Could Lure Clowney to New England

The Patriots have not scored more than 25 points in a game in their last 20 going back to 2023, and have been held under 20 points 11 times in that span.

Why the Patriots? Other than the fact that they have more than enough cap space to accommodate Clowney, who is coming off a two-year, $20 million contract with the Carolina Panthers?

The answer could be spelled out in two words: Mike Vrabel.

The first year Patriots coach was linebackers coach for the Houston Texans when that team made Clowney the draft’s first pick in 2014. Clowney was so enamored with the former Patriots linebacker that in 2020, he said that he signed with the Tennessee Titans simply because Vrabel was head coach there.

“Mike Vrabel is one of the smartest coaches I ever had. He knows football and how to put guys in position to make plays,” Clowney said in 2020. “With Mike Vrabel, I made way more plays [than] I did when I was in Seattle.”

The signing is waiting for the Patriots to make it. But will they?

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin