It's pretty damn hard to look good off the snap playing next to Gerald McCoy. I have never seen a defensive tackle with better reaction and burst then Gerald. Still, there were 3 or 4 snaps (out of his 15 maybe?) where Clinton's helmet was the first across the los. Clinton is consistently that good with his jump. There will be one out of every 3 snaps where Gerald is breathtaking across the line. I struggle to track his movements and how he beat the guard before MJ is out of his stance. He's too fast for my slow motion. 4k needs to hit soon so I can better appreciate how amazing Gerald is in the first second of most plays. Even on those plays, Clinton is right behind him. Multiple pass plays he did what he was supposed to and fired into the double team and occupied the center and guard. Had we chosen to blitz a LB he would have been presenting very nice lanes. Against the run he absorbed the double team well on all but one play. Even on the one where he was driven back by two blockers a couple of yards he was not washed out of the play. He has active hands and does a nice job of not letting single blockers lock him up. He does a good job of standing up single blocks, moving toward the play, and shedding them when the ball carrier approaches. I saw him get skinny a couple times on slants and knife through the line quickly into the backfield. He showed good awareness on one of his rushes, disengaging from his block and moving toward the back as he was drifting out of the backfield to counter a potential screen. Clinton also appears to have an active motor. This looks like an excellent value signing. We subbed AC for him twice last night, but I'm not sure Clinton isn't a better interior rusher then Clayborn as well. I'm fine with that substitution pattern though. Have not been impressed with Spence this preseason, and he's clearly several steps below McDonald right now. So I'd rather have Adrian taking snaps inside some on obvious passing downs to give Clinton some rest then a true rotation between McDonald and Spence.
