Kenny Clark: The Consummate Green Bay Packer

Few players have carried the G quite like Kenny Clark did in his nine year tenure in Green Bay.

Drafted out of UCLA in the first round in 2016, Clark quickly became a defensive cornerstone for the Green Bay Packers.

Across his first four seasons with the team from 2016 to 2019, Clark ranked among the best defensive players in the NFL. His career PFF grade at the time was a 90.2, which was ninth-best among interior defensive lineman, and his situation-specific grades were great as well. Clark’s 87.0 run grade was good for twelfth when compared to his peers, and his 89.3 pash rush grade was good for sixth, proving him a multi-faceted player at the nose tackle position, where many players are either run stuff or pass rush specialists. His final season during this period was also capped by his first Pro Bowl appearance.

Kenny Clark’s rookie contract success then led to a sizeable extension in 2020, a four year deal worth 70 million dollars that made him the highest paid nose tackle in league history at the time.

During the length of his second contract from 2020 to 2023, Clark continued to produce, securing Pro Bowl nods in 2021 and 2023 while generating 17.5 sacks. 2023 was the best season of Clark’s career, in which he had 7.5 of those sacks and joined Henry Jordan as the only Packers’ defensive tackles to receive three or more Pro Bowl selections.

As a result, Clark received the elusive third contract in Green Bay, and even though 2024 was a career-worst year for the Green Bay Packers’ stalwart, totaling only one sack and a middling PFF grade of 59.3, Clark’s leadership and grit in Jeff Hafley’s new scheme were vastly underappreciated. Clark played in seventeen games with a broken toe, which limited his efficiency as a pash rusher, but he never complained.

Respect for Kenny Clark’s professionalism and humility at an often thankless position still permeates, if GM Brian Gutekunst’s comments are anything to go by.

Kenny Clark finished his Packers career with 417 tackles and 35 sacks, but outside of his play, Clark will also be remembered fondly for his work in the Green Bay community, a significant pillar in what makes those who truly carry the G. Clark was the Packers’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, a prestigious honor that recognizes players for their humanitarian work, twice in his tenure, in 2018 and 2024.

A Storybook Setup

With the Packers’ trade for Micah Parsons paving the way to another Super Bowl window, it seems only fitting that the final remaining draftee of the late, great Ted Thompson would be the piece to seal the deal.

Still yet to turn 30, Kenny Clark has the chance to meaningful contribute for several more seasons in Dallas, and Packers fans should root for his success, as long as it’s not in week four. Few players in the last ten years of the franchise have embodied what it means to wear the Green and Gold like Clark did, and without him, Green Bay’s defenses would’ve taken a far different shape.