Clark understands his worth to Packers
If one maps specific parts of their career with circles, Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark finds himself at a most unique point in his Venn diagram.
He will be three weeks shy of his 25th birthday when the Packers’ regular season is scheduled to begin Sept. 13. Of his defensive teammates with NFL experience, only five are younger. With 65 regular-season and playoff games on his résumé, he’s an established team leader and a veteran by league standards — yet he’s still young enough to be learning the finer points of his position while hitting his physical peak.
“It’s something new that I figure out each and every year about myself and how to combat guys,” Clark said. “I think it’s more just a mental thing for right now.”
Fortunately for Clark — and perhaps unfortunately for the Packers’ salary cap — all of that intersects with his contract year. Playing on his fifthyear option for $7.69 million in 2020, Clark is in position to command either a monster extension or a free-agent deal, or put general manager Brian Gutenkunst into a franchise-tag Thunderdome with left tackle David Bakhtiari.
Clark isn’t blind to all of this. He knows what he’s worth. For him it’s just about managing his head space until someone agrees with him, whoever and whenever that may be.
“I wouldn’t say it doesn’t be on my mind sometime, but it’s one of those things where I’m fully confident in my ability and what I’m capable of and I understand my value on the defense,” Clark said. “I understand my value on this team. I understand how everybody values me in the league from different players I talk to. I know just what I’m about and my value.
“Really man, I just let everything play out how it plays out. The Packers, I don’t know, they’re going to do what
ever they want to do. I’d love to be a Packer. I love this part of it, honestly. I love the business part of it because I understand it. Sometimes it’s nervewracking, but it’s fun, too. It’s pretty cool to hear everybody talking about you and to see where you line up against this guy and this guy. It’s pretty cool to see that. But it is what it is. I’m going to let everything play out because I’m fully confident in my ability and what I can do.”
Until then, Clark is ready to put together his most consistent season.
He says his body feels good and he can do whatever he wants to physically, so this offseason and training camp will be about the finer points of the game. He mentioned how, despite having his hand on the ground, he needs to time the play clock and quarterback cadence into his get-off; understand how to set up offensive linemen for a move one or two plays in advance and develop counter measures to blocks.
“Little stuff like that matters,” Clark said. “It gets you that extra step and it helps you play faster. That’s all on me. I just gotta keep on consistently doing that stuff at practice, understanding at practice how to do that and what to look for and keeping it in my mind even when I’m tired and when I’m playing. That’s just something I’ve gotta do.”
For the layman, consistency is harder to measure when a player spends his life in the quagmire of the interior line than, say, quarterback or cornerback play. Packers defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery will dutifully note the double teams and pressures Clark creates, yet the hard numbers snowball for him late in seasons.
He takes pride in wanting to play his best at the end of the regular season, but it has led to some statistical anomalies such as recording 60 tackles (31% of his career total), 12 quarterback hits (46%), 10 tackles for loss (42%) and nine sacks (55%) just in the month of December over his career.
Whatever consistency may mean for Clark on film or on the stat sheet, it’s an important goal as defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has spoken about decreasing his star defensive tackle’s snap count. Presumably it leads to fresher legs throughout the year, and the Packers and Clark can only hope that additional circle in the Venn diagram benefits the standings, the stat sheet and the pocketbook.
“Just trying to polish everything that works for me well,” Clark said. “That’s really what I’ve been on. As far as my expectations, it’s just being me. That’s just being able to play physical, be a great run defender and be able to pass rush, too. I just think if I do that, that I’ll help have our defense where we want to be. I just gotta keep on getting better, just getting better at being a leader, being better at being more consistent. I think that just takes a mindset, just me being able to reset every single week and just get on a roll and make sure I stay on that roll.”