Former Ravens Safety Hasn't Forgotten Trade

The Baltimore Ravens' addition of Kyle Hamilton has been fantastic for the defense overall, but it came at the cost of alienating a key player.

Chuck Clark, who had been a clear-cut starter for the Ravens, was less than thrilled that the team drafted his apparent replacement and even requested a trade shortly after. He stuck around for the 2022 season, but the Ravens eventually granted his trade request when they sent him to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick.

More than a year later, Clark still thinks about how his time in Baltimore came to an end.

“I mean, I ain’t forgot about that,” Clark told reporters, per the Associated Press. “I’ve still got that chip on my shoulder. But I think going through that injury process, it just gave me a new gratitude and gratefulness for this game. I’ve still got a lot to prove. I missed the whole year.

“People might be like, ‘Oh, he lost a step.’ Yeah, all right. Watch.”

As Clark alluded to, he missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL he suffered during OTAs. The 29-year-old barely missed any time during his tenure in Baltimore, so not playing football for so long was a very strange feeling.

“I couldn’t believe it when it did happen,” Clark said. “I wasn’t accepting it, you know? So I was like, ‘I’m moving around. It’s just not true.’”

A 2017 sixth-round pick out of Virginia Tech, Clark accounted for 384 total tackles, 32 passes defended and five interceptions throughout his six seasons in Baltimore. He was a good player for the Ravens, but they seem very happy with their current safety duo of Hamilton and Marcus Williams.