The 90 to 1 Green Bay Packers roster countdown: No. 7 – Kenny Clark

The fourth-year standout is one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL

The Green Bay Packers, and their 90 players on the roster, are in the midst of their first training camp under coach Matt LaFleur. In an annual tradition from my 11 years at Packer Report, I rank the players in order of importance from No. 90 to No. 1. This isn’t just a listing of the team’s best players. Our rankings take into account talent, importance of the position, depth at the position, salary and draft history. More than the ranking, we hope you learn something about each player. (Note: The start of this series can be found with my former employer.)

No. 7: DT Kenny Clark ($2,978,707 cap)

If the defensive line wasn’t Clark’s already, it became official when Mike Daniels was released on the eve of training camp.

“I felt like it was my room” after Daniels’ season-ending injury last season, Clark said. “I’m not big on yelling and trying to show everybody that, but I felt like I put in the work and my film spoke for itself, really. So, yeah, I felt like it was my room.”

He might be only 23, but the defensive line is in good hands with Clark standing front and center. As he enters his fourth season, the 2016 first-round pick has established himself as one of the best all-around defensive linemen in the NFL.

Pro Football Focus has two main metrics to measure the productivity of a defensive lineman. One is run-stop percentage, a stat that essentially measures impact tackles. For instance, on first-and-10, a solo tackle that holds the play to 3 yards or less is a run stop; a gain of 4 is not a run stop. The other is pass-rush productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap. Among all interior defensive linemen with 150 snaps vs. the run and 150 snaps vs. the pass, only one finished in the top 10 in both metrics.

That would be Clark.

“Kenny Clark is a dominant player in the NFL,” GM Brian Gutekunst said early in training camp.

Even though he missed the final three games with an elbow injury, Clark had a career-high six sacks and just missed his career high with 73 tackles.

“Same ol’, same ol’. His development has been, from Day 1, and I said this last year, he’s a pro,” defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said. “He comes to work every day and he does exactly what you ask him, how you ask him to do it. And he doesn’t play out of his means. I think he’s going to be his best him. I thought he was last year. His production in the run game was tremendous. And he had the six sacks; I think he’s sitting around eight or maybe nine (if healthy). He’s unique. He’s a talented guy that works extremely hard and he goes about his business every single day.”

The Packers will count on that this season without Daniels. While the defensive line could be the best unit on the team, only Clark and Lowry could be considered sure things and three-down players. With his all-around dominance at such an early age, the Packers have triggered Clark’s fifth-year option, meaning a significant raise to $7.69 million for 2020. A bigger payday is just down the road, though, depending on when Gutekunst wants to secure this pillar of the defense for the prime of his career.

“The thing about me, not to sound cocky or anything like that, but I know it’s going to happen. I know it’s coming,” Clark said. “The biggest thing for me is I’ve got to prove myself every day. I’ve got to come in to work and prove myself and show them that I’m going to continue to be great and continue to put it on film. And I just know it’s going to happen if I keep doing those things.”