CLEMSON — While Will Heldt and T.J. Parker are getting a bulk of the attention among the Clemson defensive ends, there is another who is quietly turning in his best camp to date.

Jahiem Lawson, who is now entering his fourth season with the program, has been putting in work.

Lawson showed a lot of promise, at times, last season, logging more than 350 snaps and even starting four games, but he was far from a complete player. Throughout the spring and now into the early stages of camp, Lawson is building on some of the success he experienced a season ago.

“Probably one of the most pleasing guys in camp,” head coach Dabo Swinney said. “Since the day he’s got here, he has always lacked something.”

Hailing from nearby Daniel High School, Lawson is the younger brother of former Clemson standout and former first-round NFL Draft pick Shaq Lawson. However, as a member of the Tigers’ 2022 recruiting class, the younger Lawson is taking a different path than his older brother.

When he arrived at Clemson, he was closer to the size of a wide receiver than he was a defensive end. Ironically, Lawson originally wanted to be a wideout. It was Swinney who helped convince him he’d be better served playing with his hand in the dirt.

“When he got here, he was 210 pounds. He lacked size. So he has been a work in progress,” Swiney added. “Then he lacked experience, and honestly, a little bit of maturity, too. Now, he really don’t lack anything. He is 261 pounds and he is strong.”

“He has always had a great motor. That honestly is one of the reasons we signed him. Because I watched him his whole life, and he is a high-motor kid, a high-energy kid. He is a developmental guy. He has two years left.”

And who better than Swinney to help him realize where he would best fit? The longtime head coach has known Lawson most of his life. In fact, due to him being so close with Swinney’s youngest son, Clay, while they were coming up, Lawson spent many nights sleeping over at his future head coach’s house.

“They always call him Jahiem Swinney, they kid with him,” Swinney said. “I have known him his whole life. He and Clay grew up together, played all the sports together. Football, basketball. Stayed at my house a lot growing up.”

Being the younger brother of a former first-round pick also led to some unrealistic expectations, and living in that shadow proved to be quite challenging early on.

“He had a lot to live up to,” Swinney said. “That is a big name. Shaq Lawson, that’s a big, big shadow, big footsteps that he’s had to follow up behind. He lost his father. He had a lot of things he had to grow through as a young kid. He had to do a little more work than Shaq. It was a little more natural for Shaq. He was just naturally bigger and things like that.”

Before last year, Lawson had never played more than 37 snaps in a season. He needed a couple of years in the strength and conditioning program to add some bulk and some strength.

In 2024, the fruits of that labor finally started to pay off, with Lawson appearing in all 14 games, recording 29 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, three pass breakups and one fumble recovery. At the same time, Swinney believes Lawson has just barely scratched the surface.

Looking ahead to the coming season, Swinney is expecting Lawson to be a productive piece of the Tigers’ defense. Even if he is playing behind Parker and Heldt. In fact, the head coach insists the younger brother is now reaching the same level his older brother did during his playing days at Clemson.

“(Jahiem) is in the same spot right now, though,” Swinney said. “He is a really good football player as a redshirt junior. If he keeps at it, he will be really productive for us.”

“But I would put him at the top of the most pleasing guys in camp to this point.”

Photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright