Every NFL team has its underrated players — those force multipliers that make things go on offense or defense but never seem to get the credit they deserve. For the Packers over the last three seasons, that player has been defensive tackle Kenny Clark, the team’s first-round pick in 2016, who really became a major part of that defense in his second season.
Now, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports, Clark is making financial history at his position.
More info on the Kenny Clark deal:
đClark will make $37M in the first two years of the deal.
đThereâs no deferral on the bonus.
đAnd heâs now tied to Green Bay for the next five seasons. https://t.co/JLTU0YEfPP
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 15, 2020
The bump is well-deserved. Clark has totaled 16.5 regular-season sacks and one quarterback takedown in the postseason through his career, but as is especially true of interior defensive linemen, sacks don’t tell the whole story.
Last season, per Pro Football Focus, only Aaron Donald and Calais Campbell had more total pressures among players listed as interior defensive linemen than Clark with 69. As Campbell played end a lot of the time, and Donald is from another planet from a talent perspective, that puts Clark in rarefied air. Clark also had more stops than any other interior defensive lineman with 45. As effective as the pass-rushing tandem of Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith was last season, that duo would not have been able to wreak as much havoc without Clark beating people up from center to guard.
Still, Clark remains underrated by some. He somehow didn’t make the NFL Network’s list of the league’s top 100 players in 2020, though he ranked 34th in Touchdown Wire’s list of the NFL’s top 101. Here’s what our Mark Schofield had to say about Clark’s play on the field: