The Seattle Seahawks fortified their defensive front and took advantage of the Houston Texans’ curious handling of Jadeveon Clowney’s contract standoff.

The Seahawks, as part of Saturday’s maneuvering by teams to get their rosters in order for the start of the regular season, agreed to a trade with the Texans for Clowney, the three-time Pro Bowl defensive end and top overall selection in the 2014 NFL draft.

Clowney was to sign his one-year franchise player deal as part of a trade that sent two players and a third-round draft pick next spring to Houston. The trade agreement was confirmed by a person familiar with the deliberations.

The deal came with NFL teams facing Saturday’s 4 p.m. deadline to reduce their rosters to 53 players. In addition to the draft choice, the Texans receive defensive end and linebacker Barkevious Mingo and linebacker Jacob Martin in the trade.

Clowney had been refusing to sign his franchise deal and report to Houston. The one-year deal is worth $15.967 million for Clowney.

The Texans had been exploring trade options for Clowney, and the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles also were speculated to be in the mix. Clowney reportedly did not want to play for the Dolphins and had some control over the situation because he had to sign his franchise deal to be traded, under NFL rules.

He also reportedly had been willing to report recently to the Texans and play this season under his franchise player deal but changed his mind after learning of the possibility that he’d be traded.

The Texans are operating without a general manager after firing Brian Gaine in June and being rebuffed in their reported effort to lure highly regarded front office executive Nick Caserio from the New England Patriots. The absence of a GM has increased Coach Bill O’Brien’s authority in shaping the team’s roster. But the handling of the Clowney situation raised some eyebrows within and around the league among observers who wondered why the Texans weren’t able to get more in return.

Mingo was a 2013 first-round pick who had one sack last season for the Seahawks and 10 in his career. He’s joining his fifth NFL team after stints in Cleveland, New England, Indianapolis and Seattle. Martin is a second-year player who had three sacks and nine tackles for the Seahawks last season as a rookie after being drafted in the sixth round out of Temple.

By failing to trade Clowney before the July 15 deadline for NFL teams to sign franchise-tagged players to long-term deals, the Texans limited his value on the trade market. Any team trading for him would be adding a player eligible for unrestricted free agency next spring, without the ability to immediately sign Clowney to a multiyear contract extension.

When the Seahawks, in contrast, traded their franchise-tagged defensive end, Frank Clark, to the Kansas City Chiefs in April, they received first- and second-round draft picks. Those two teams also exchanged third-round choices and Clark was signed to a lucrative new contract by the Chiefs.

So the Seahawks essentially are adding Clowney as a replacement for Clark in their formidable defensive front seven, in what amounts to a masterful move by General Manager John Schneider and Coach Pete Carroll. The Seahawks potentially could recoup the draft choice they surrendered for Clowney in the form of a compensatory draft pick next year, if he leaves in free agency.

Clowney totaled 18.5 sacks over the past two seasons for the Texans. He has not developed into the dominant pass rusher in the NFL that some had projected when he was drafted. But he has become a superb all-around defender who has been selected to the last three Pro Bowls.

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