ROUND 1 PICK 27 - DT KENNY CLARK (UCLA)

Kenny has been a good to sometimes very good player for the Packers (especially loved how he dominated the Queens center Bradbury in previous years).

During the offseason, Kenny sounded fired up about the alleged newly aggressive Packer defensive approach under Hafley.

https://www.nfl.com/news/packe...-way-more-disruptive

Clark currently has a 49.6 PFF grade. Last year he was at 68.8. In 2022, he was at 66.4 and in 2021 he was at 74.9.

Wyatt has 3 sacks on the year. Karl Brooks has 1.5. Yesterday, Slaton got his first sack on the season.

Through 10 games, Kenny has zero sacks.

Yesterday, Clark appears to have had a clean sheet, no solo tackles and no assisted tackles on a day the Bears ran for more than 170 yards.

Father time?

Pretty much sums it up

@Shadow posted:

Father time?

Either that or Clark is not a scheme fit ... despite his previously announced enthusiasm for the scheme.

He is just not even close to the Kenny Clark of the past.

@SteveLuke posted:

Either that or Clark is not a scheme fit ...

Along with Gary, perhaps?

Always seems like these guys get paid and they're done.

They got paid and are now trying to escape with their health?

@Shadow posted:

Father time?

For Kenny, it's not the years.  It's the miles.  I remember some of those bottoming out D years where he was the only dude doing anything on the DL and he was working his ass off.  He'd get doubled all the time because there was no one else there.

@DH13 posted:

For Kenny, it's not the years.  It's the miles.  I remember some of those bottoming out D years where he was the only dude doing anything on the DL and he was working his ass off.  He'd get doubled all the time because there was no one else there.

How dare you besmirch Dean Lowry! 🤭

@Shadow posted:

They got paid and are now trying to escape with their health?

Maybe, but I think it's more they got paid (certainly in Gary's case) because they did improve from their rookie year to year 3 (Gary had 9.5 sacks in his third season) and the Packers front office thought they would continue to improve. Instead, they were really just plateauing because of talent or injury. Gary is really just a 7-9 sack guy per year, not a 14-16 type all-pro.

@DH13 posted:

For Kenny, it's not the years.  It's the miles.  I remember some of those bottoming out D years where he was the only dude doing anything on the DL and he was working his ass off.  He'd get doubled all the time because there was no one else there.

Exactly. He has seemed to "hit the wall". Not long ago he would destroy backup guards. Bears had their third stringer in at LG yesterday and he couldn't capitalize.

For whatever reason, the Packers have struggled to identify good DL and LBs in the draft for the entire "modern" era - dating back to when Ron Wolf arrived.

They have drafted 31 guys in the top three rounds the last 33 drafts (1992-2004) at DL or LB. Four of those guys made a Pro Bowl and only one of them was really a superstar (Matthews). Clark has made 3. AJ Hawk and BJ Raji each made one Pro Bowl.

They had two other Pro Bowlers from later rounds in the draft in that same time period (Daniels -1 time, and Kampman - twice).

Getting three guys from 33 years of drafting to make more than one Pro Bowl from your front 7 is Bears/QB level drafting.

They've had to use free agency at that position more than any other to really optimize their ability to compete - Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, Ryan Pickett, Julius Peppers, Z. Smith, P. Smith.

https://www.pro-football-refer.../teams/gnb/draft.htm

So....solve the problem....

How about some better DL scouts?

I would say sometimes contract extensions are as much about helping the salary cap as they are about the expectations of a player not plateauing or falling off, or even fulfilling the number of years of the extension. I believe at the time of the extension, the Packers still had more than $40 million in dead cap and needed to get Love under contract.

Would love for Kenny to perform better on the field, but I'm not ready to write the extension off as a mistake.

Kenny has been playing all season with a lingering foot injury, toe I believe.

I can’t find it now, but some guy last week posted info that said Kenny’s double team rate is amongst the top 5 or 10 IDLs in the league. Opponents still respect him, obviously.

@ilcuqui posted:

Kenny has been playing all season with a lingering foot injury, toe I believe.

I can’t find it now, but some guy last week posted info that said Kenny’s double team rate is amongst the top 5 or 10 IDLs in the league. Opponents still respect him, obviously.

Well. They also need to double someone and you apparently can block Van Ness with a TE, so that means you can double two guys on their front 4 with your 5 OL.

Is it against team rules to beat a double team?

@Pikes Peak posted:

Is it against team rules to beat a double team?

Yes.....only in the playoffs. Don't want to upset anyone during the regular season.

This is another case where the eyes see one thing and the stats don't match.
Somebody recently posted a pass rush win rate chart amongst DTs (or DL?), and KC was ranked fairly high.

That's the funny thing about "winning" a pass rush. If the QB gets the ball out in 2 seconds you can "win" all you want. You are not touching him. Or if he rolls out away from you that "win" isn't going to mean much.

@PackerHawk posted:

That's the funny thing about "winning" a pass rush. If the QB gets the ball out in 2 seconds you can "win" all you want. You are not touching him. Or if he rolls out away from you that "win" isn't going to mean much.

Or you're not blocked on a play action, get the sack, and suddenly your potential has been unlocked and you need more reps.

By the way, I'm aware Cocks made some plays in limited snaps.  Just sayin'.