Seahawks fans still waiting for Frank Clark to be extended
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks enter the offseason in need of pass rushers. So why haven’t they already extended Frank Clark?
The Seahawks had two good and consistent pass rushers in 2018: Jarran Reed and Frank Clark. Clark had 13 sacks this year. He is also an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Clark could be franchise tagged or Seattle could do the right and good thing by simply signing Clark to a long-term extension.
On Tuesday, Clark even tweeted out that he had injured both the UCLs in his elbows this year. At least, Clark said he had torn his UCLs in “one season” and both against the Vikings. If this is true, two things are evident.
Two torn UCL’s in one season. Both against the Minnesota Vikings.
— Frank Clark (@TheRealFrankC_) January 16, 2019
The first obvious thing is that Clark will most likely never pitch in major league baseball. Having torn both UCLs? That’s bad. Who does he think he is? R.A. Dickey?
The second, and much more important, aspect is that if Clark really had major elbow issues and still accumulated all those sacks and 10 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles it shows Clark can play with pain and be really good.
Every NFL player is going to get banged up as a season goes on. But Clark relies on his athleticism to dominate at the line of scrimmage. With two bad elbows, his athleticism becomes more limited. And yet, after the Vikings game in week 14, Clark had three quarterback hits in each of Seattle’s last four games. Prior to week 14, Clark had three quarterback hits in just two games.
Did Clark become more productive after being injured? It would appear so.
Seattle has a lot of cap space this offseason. And I mean, a lot. The Seahawks have $60 million in cap space which ranks ninth in the NFL. There is plenty of room to re-sign Clark. Clark plays a position of need and has proven to be effective his entire career. He will be 26 years old during the 2019 season.
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If Seattle does not find a way to re-sign Clark, there should be boycotting. General manager John Schneider doesn’t need to give in to simply using the franchise tag on Clark to keep him in Seattle next year, he needs to use real money to extend Clark for at least three years. Seattle needs Clark and Clark wants to stay with the Seahawks. Let’s hope Schneider makes it happen.