Detroit Lions Sign Former Jets, Steelers Safety Chuck Clark

The Detroit Lions have added more depth to their collection of safeties.

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On Tuesday, which marked the second day of the NFL’s annual league meetings, the Lions agreed to a contract with safety Chuck Clark. Terms of the contract were not immediately disclosed.

Clark will be entering his 10th NFL season in 2026, and has played for three different organizations. He played the first six seasons of his career for the Baltimore Ravens, spent two years with the New York Jets and one with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The veteran has made 123 career appearances across his tenure, with 80 of those being starts. He has totaled 504 combined tackles, 11 tackles for loss and five interceptions.

Clark does have some unfortunate injury history. He missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL, and landed on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle the following year.

During the first day of the owner's meetings on Monday, Lions' sixth-year head coach Dan Campbell admitted that the team was still actively scouring the market for help even with the initial phase of free agency completed.

“Free agency’s just one piece of this. We are not done. Free agency is still going on, and then we’ve got the draft, and then you’ve got free agency after the draft," Campbell told the team website on Monday. "Trades are available through whenever that is, and the waiver wire after training camp, which we’ve found guys. That’s how we found John Cominsky four years ago. There’s so many things that you have at your disposal that we are far from done.”

Clark joins a safety group that was decimated by injuries a season ago. Both Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch suffered significant injuries. Branch tore his Achilles in Week 14, while Joseph had been dealing with a nagging injury and didn't appear in a game after Week 6.

Detroit has previously addressed this position during the offseason with the signing of former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Christian Izien, whom the staff was familiar with from his performance against the Lions in recent years.

When healthy, the tandem is one of the NFL's best safety duos. However, there are concerns about future production given the severity of their injuries, particularly with Joseph due to the nature of his knee ailment.

Joseph was a First Team All-Pro selection in 2024 after leading the league with nine interceptions, and signed a four-year contract extension that following offseason that made him the NFL's highest-paid safety.