What is Frank Clark?
By Dan Viens
Frank Clark has played three positions for the Seattle Seahawks, but which is his best fit?
It’s tough to get a read on just what Frank Clark is these days.
During his 2015 rookie campaign, Clark found some success as an interior pass rusher (registering 3 sacks), and the Seahawks started using him more as a penetrating defensive tackle on passing downs. For that reason he drew some comparisons in style to fellow Seahawk DE/DT Michael Bennett. And it was Bennett himself who had such high praise for Clark that he predicted he would someday sign a $100 million contract.
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Then this offseason we saw that Clark had dropped weight, and Pete Carroll admitted the team was going to try him on certain downs in Bruce Irvin’s vacated OLB role.
That experiment didn’t seem to last long, because this preseason Clark has played almost exclusively at defensive end.
It seems to be working out.
Clark is tied with Cliff Avril for the team lead in sacks this preseason with 1.5.
Coming out of Michigan, the most common knock on Clark was lack of an explosive first step as a pass rusher. Maybe it’s the weight loss or just him adapting to the speed of the NFL game, but Clark looks much quicker this year. He’s tenacious in how he goes after the quarterback and his ability to chase a play down from behind makes him special.
It appears now that Carroll envisions him as that ideal “LEO” type defensive end that suited Chris Clemons so well during his previous stop in Seattle.
If Clark can continue to develop as a pass rusher, maybe Bennett was right after all and he will someday sign that $100 million contract.
Let’s just hope then that it’s with the Seahawks.