Paul Bretl | 6/5/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — During the two OTA practices that have been open to the media, Kenny Clark wasn’t going through the team drills in either portion. In fact, with OTAs two weeks in, he had just returned to individual drills over the last few days.
Following Tuesday’s practice, Clark revealed that he had surgery on his foot back in January and was still rehabbing from it–hence why he wasn’t going through the full portion of practices. As Clark described, the injury issue was due to “bunion, bone spurs.”
Clark would play just about the entire 2024 season with the foot injury. He suffered the toe injury in the Packers’ season opener in Brazil against the Philadelphia Eagles, where his toe got caught in the turf.
“I always had a little toe thing going on,” Clark said. “It was really just the turf out there, like the turf pretty much, yeah.”
Hit like and subscribe to my YouTube Channel ‘The Paul Bretl Show’ for more Packers coverage.
Injuries in the NFL won’t be used as an excuse, but they are a reality of this game and have an impact. While Clark would start in all 18 games last season, including the NFC Wildcard round, we didn’t see the usual level of play from Clark that we’ve grown accustomed to over the last almost-decade.
According to PFF’s metrics, Clark would record 34 pressures and just one sack. In 2023, for some context, Clark posted 66 pressures and 10 sacks. Outside of Clark’s rookie year, when he made two starts, and in 2020, when he played in only 13 games, this was his least productive season as a pass rusher of his career.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s the speed,” Clark said of navigating the injury, “it’s just the, every step, you know what I’m saying. You’re taking every step, and the toe is busting. It’s something you’ve got to deal with, but it is what it is. That’s done. I got the surgery done, and yeah, we’re moving forward.”
As we know, when Clark is playing at a high level, he can fill his own stat sheet up with production. But from the defensive tackle spot, he is a force multiplier as well, meaning that everyone around Clark benefits when he’s making an impact.
The best way to slow any offensive play, whether it be a run or a pass, is with a quick push from up the middle, and when that’s happening, the other 10 defenders all benefit from it. Pressure disrupts the timing of the play, which means less coverage time for the secondary, and the attention Clark draws from blockers helps keep other defenders clean or can create advantageous matchups for others to exploit.
So when Clark’s production takes a big step back, like it did last season, there is a ripple effect through the front seven.
“I’m so excited,” said Clark about the upcoming season. “It’s going to be a huge year for all of us. We’ve been really putting in a lot of work. We’ve always been a hard-working group, and we’ve got to just keep that same mentality, that same mindset that we come in every day and push each other.”
The Packers had one of the better run defense units in the NFL last season. But where this defensive front faltered was against the pass, where the unit’s ability to generate pressure was inconsistent at best. We often saw this group posting big pressure and sack totals against lesser competition, but struggle to get home against the NFC’s best.
To remedy this, as both Clark and Rashan Gary described, the defensive linemen have been gathering at Clark’s house during OTAs for film study. Matt LaFleur also made an offseason move at defensive line coach to bring in DeMarcus Covington, who is bringing new ideas after getting his “master’s degree” in football while in New England under Bill Belichick.
We are also going to see a technique change in terms of what the defensive front is asked to do. Rather than being all about pinning their ears back and getting off the ball, as Clark mentioned, things will more so resemble what we saw from this unit a few seasons ago, when the emphasis was on reading and reacting.
“It’s back to more, like I would say, our old stuff,” Clark said. “Last year we pretty much were going up the field, like jetting up the field, stopping the run on the way to the quarterback, pretty much. This year playing more technique.”
Throughout the offseason, as many–including myself–have pontificated on how the Packers get more production from their pass rush unit, a key part of that equation is Clark returning to his previous form. This, again, will carry an impact that goes well beyond Clark’s column in the stat sheet.
Clark will continue to focus on his individual drills as he continues to work his way back from foot surgery, but hopes that by training camp he can be in a position to practice and train how he wants to.
“The game plan is just really just getting healthy enough to be able to train how I want to once the summer hits and training during the summer and hopefully when I get back I’m full go and there’s no issues,” said Clark. “But my main focus is doing this individual work, finishing out the rest of these two weeks and I’ll be in a good spot going into the summer and really being able to train how I want to train.”