Should Dallas Cowboys Trade for Playoff Sack Artist Frank Clark?

A week ago, the Denver Broncos dangled pass-rusher Randy Gregory out on the open market, announcing that they planned to cut him unless someone wished to make a minor trade to take him on. The Dallas Cowboys, Gregory's former employer and the team that knows him best, did not bite, and Gregory moved to San Francisco.

This week, the Broncos are going through an almost identical offering, announcing that another pass-rusher, this one Frank Clark, is available in the same sort of "fire sale/giveaway'' as Gregory was.

Should the Cowboys bite this time around?

It will help lowly Denver's cause that they just negotiated with Clark in a way that reduces his $3.5 million base salary to the minimum of $841,000 for the rest of the 2023 season, as NFL Network first reported.

That is a statement illustrating how poor Clark (like Gregory) has been for the 1-4 Broncos; Clark literally returned $1.679 million in base pay as part of the restructure in an effort to facilitate a move.

Another illustration: Clark's Broncos play in this week's Thursday night's game against his former team, the Kansas City Chiefs - but he's "called in sick'' and will not play.

Randy Gregory 'Messed Up!' - But 49ers 'Excited' to Trade for Cowboys Ex

(Sidebar: A week ago, Gregory was traded to San Francisco, reported to the Bay Area to take his physical, and then left, heading back to Denver to "clear up some personal matters.'' He therefore did not play in the Niners' Sunday night win over visiting Dallas - a matchup that one would think would be right up his alley. Why isn't anybody asking why Gregory didn't play?)

Like Gregory, Clark is 30. The Broncos are turning the page on a player in Clark who annually seems to flip a switch in the playoffs to perform ... but who during the regular season is essentially a five-sacks-a-year guy. And this season? Clark, like Gregory, has been invisible as part of Denver's 32nd-ranked defense. He's recorded two tackles. He has zero sacks. He's played in just two of the Broncos' first five games.

As a "name'' player, Cowboys Nation is justified in wondering about Clark (and Gregory before him). But 3-2 Dallas has in theory built a war chest of pass-rushers in DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons, backed up by Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Sam Williams and Junior Fehoko. Maybe rather than taking on another team's problem, as the Cowboys declined to do with Gregory, they should find those five more sacks from the army of defensive ends already employed here at The Star.