While Packers quarterback Jordan Love’s future and a potential long-term extension takes up much of the spotlight in Green Bay these days, another team leader is entering the final year of his contract in 2024: three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
Clark is entering the final year of his current deal, a four-year, $70 million contract he signed back on Aug. 15 of 2020.
“There’s been talks, still ongoing,” Clark said Tuesday, via TMJ4 in Milwaukee, at Packers mandatory minicamp. “They’re talking, though, and that’s the only thing I got on that.”
Clark would love nothing more than to finish his career with the team that selected him 27th overall in the 2016 NFL Draft out of UCLA eight years ago. Since 2019, when current head coach Matt LaFleur and his staff took over in Green Bay, Clark has performed like one of the best defensive tackles in football. All three of his Pro Bowls have occurred in the last five seasons, and he is one of eight defensive tackles in the entire NFL with 90 or more quarterback pressures and 20 or more sacks since 2019. Clark is in an exclusive eight-man club with the following seven other defensive tackles to do so since 2019: Chris Jones, DeForest Buckner, Jonathan Allen, Fletcher Cox, Dexter Lawrence, Quinnen Williams and Grady Jarrett.
“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” Clark said when asked if Green Bay is where he would like to be for the rest of his career. “I love it here. I love my teammates. I love the organization. Hopefully everything will work out.”
Achieving a third NFL contract with the same team is incredibly rare because of the durability and production required to do so, but with Clark being drafted by the Packers when he was 20, he has a lot left in the tank at this contractual stage of his career. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst said as much on Tuesday. Clark has only missed eight games in eight NFL seasons and has played all 17 games in each of the last two years.
“As far as Kenny is concerned, we would love to keep Kenny around,” Gutekunst said Tuesday on Cheesehead TV. “We’ll kind of see how all that goes moving forward here, but it’s crazy to think he’s only 28 years old with the amount of football he’s played with us. He started so young. He’s a little bit younger than most third contract guys are. He’s been very, very durable for us over that time. I think that’s something as we go forward here that we’re going to look to see if we can do.”
However, Clark will have to wait until Love, who is entering the final year of his contract in 2024, is signed to a new long-term contract extension before Gutekunst and the Packers front office turn their attention toward his potential next contract with the team.
“Again, it all has to fit. Certainly Jordan’s contract and getting that done and knowing how that is structured and how that sits over the next few years will be informative,” Gutekunst said. “Kenny is still playing at a very, very high level. One of our team leaders. We would certainly like to have him around for a number of years.”
