Young and dominant Kenny Clark is worth every penny for the Packers
The Green Bay Packers agreed to sign defensive lineman Kenny Clark to a four-year extension worth $70 million, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. The deal averages $17.5 million per season in new money and includes a $25 million signing bonus.
Clark, who is still 24 years old and coming off his first Pro Bowl season, is worth every penny for the Packers.
Clark checks every box for the type of player a team should want to sign to a long, lucrative deal.
He’s so young – Clark doesn’t turn 25 until October and he’ll still be under 30 years old when this new extension expires – and he’s every improved every season since entering the NFL as a late first-round pick in 2016. Clark has increased the number of pressures created during each of his first four seasons.
He’s a truly dominant player, having produced 146 pressures and 116 run stops over the last three seasons, per Pro Football Focus. Last season, only Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams produced more pressures among interior defensive linemen. He created 62 total pressures and 39 run stops, both career-highs.
He’s a rare player, with a dominant pass-rushing skill set at the nose tackle position. Players at his size (314 pounds) playing his position don’t normally affect the passing game consistently. Clark does. He’s a disruptive force in the passing game despite typically playing with only one down lineman next to him, and his efforts as a pass-rusher don’t take away from his strength and power against the run.
Although Clark didn’t make “The Top 100 Players in 2020” list, Touchdown Wire ranked him as the NFL’s No. 34 overall player. Pro Football Focus placed him at No. 44 entering 2020, highlighting just how highly regarded he is among the national voices actually paying attention.
In Clark, the Packers have a cornerstone player and a consistently disruptive defender under contract at a fair price for the next five seasons. He is already one of the NFL’s best interior defensive lineman, but he’s also young and entering his physical prime, suggesting there might be even more for him to achieve in upcoming seasons.
Back in January, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said it was “important” to get a new deal done with a “very important” part of Mike Pettine’s defense. Mission accomplished. It took until the first day of training camp practice in mid-August, but the Packers now have their dominant young defender locked up in Green Bay for the long term.
