It is rarely good news to discover a key player dealt with an injury serious enough to require surgery, but when Kenny Clark told the Green Bay media he had a procedure on his foot to deal with a bunion and bone spurs, an injury he picked up in week one of 2024, it was frankly a relief.
Clark signed a three-year, $64m extension last July, receiving the coveted and elusive third contract which is seldom handed out by the Packers, and promptly endured the worst season of his NFL career.
There is a reason Green Bay is reluctant to give third contracts. There is a higher risk of the deal aging poorly due to the player being older and potentially close to their decline. It seemed they may have made a mistake in paying Clark for a second time after the year he had.
He had only 34 quarterback pressures in 2024, producing his lowest pressure rate since the 2020 season. Clark had just one sack, having racked up ten the previous year, while his number of run stops, 21, was down from 25 in 2023.
Clark’s overall PFF grade for the season of 60, which is exactly average, is not what the Packers would have expected from their star defensive lineman who is paid near the top of the market.
However, the foot injury he fought through all season long, while not missing a game and playing an average of 63% of the defensive snaps, offers a justifiable explanation which should ease concerns his play had fallen off a cliff.
It speaks to the type of character and competitor Clark is that he gutted through the injury for the entire year after suffering it in Brazil against the Eagles, and never mentioned to the media how much it was hampering him.
He is not the type to make excuses, and probably did not want opponents to know the extent of his foot issue, but speaking to the media last week, Clark confirmed the injury was a real obstacle for him.
Clark said: “It was a tough year for me”, and admitted the injury impacted him “a lot”.
After having surgery in January, Clark is now back practicing with the team and appears to be full steam ahead for the 2025 season.
Entering his tenth year in the league, Clark does not turn 30 years old until October. He came into the NFL as a 20-year-old. Being unusually young for a third contract player likely gave Green Bay confidence in extending his stay, as he was still only 28 when he signed the deal.
He should have plenty left in the tank, although it is worth mentioning even without the injury, Clark has not quite been the same player in recent years.
PFF grades are not gospel, but Clark has not been trending in the right direction for quite some time.
After peaking with a 90.2 grade in 2018, his third season, Clark’s overall grade declined each year to 79.5 in 2019, 76.1 in 2020, 75.4 in 2021 and 66.4 in 2022, before rebounding to a 70.4 grade in 2023.
He has not ranked above 32nd compared to other NFL defensive linemen since 2021. Clark has averaged 25 run stops per season in the last five years compared to 38.67 in the previous three campaigns.
Clark has played a lot of football and the Packers have not done a great job of providing sufficient depth so that he can get a breather every now and again. This is likely to add up over time resulting in a lower quality of play and a greater risk of injuries.
If he is healthy, Clark is at absolute worst an above average defensive tackle. Whether he can avoid injury in 2025 and return to the level of performance he showed as a younger player will go a long way to deciding the ceiling for Green Bay’s defensive line, and defense as a whole.