A short reunion: Why Seahawks are releasing Frank Clark 2 months after bringing him back
Frank Clark’s return to the Seahawks didn’t last long.
The team on Saturday finalized what had become apparent in recent weeks: There was no place on the Seahawks for a 30-year-old pass rusher with no sacks in two months that they have been making a healthy scratch for game days.
A league source told The News Tribune Saturday the Seahawks cut Clark to clear a spot on the active roster a day before its key game against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Lumen Field.
Why? He gave them no production in his only role: pressuring opposing quarterbacks.
Clark signed back in October with the team that drafted the three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher with its first pick in the 2015 NFL draft. Clark signed back with Seattle soon after a season-ending injury to Uchenna Nwosu, the team’s top pass rusher.
The Seahawks ruled Clark out of their game Sunday against the Steelers. It was going to be the third consecutive game he was going to miss inactive. He missed Seattle’s win last week at Tennessee. The team said he had an illness.
The Seahawks had six sacks in that game without him. Seattle leads the NFC in sacks this season, without any from Clark.
He isn’t injured. Friday, Seattle gave him the unusual designation for being out for Sunday’s game as “NIR (Not Injury Related)-Resting player.”
Coach Pete Carroll was stern not wanting to talk about Clark’s status with the team on Friday.
“Frank is out for the game. And that’s where he is right now,” Carroll said.
“Frank’s fine. I’m not talking about him. That’s it. I’ve got nothin’ for you. He’s out right now.
“And we’ll just leave it at that.”
The next day, he was off the team.
Clark played in six games with no sacks and six tackles since the Seahawks signed back their former second-round pick as a free agent.
The Seahawks are the third team to release Clark this year.
The Kansas City Chiefs released him in March, after four seasons and winning two Super Bowl rings with them from 2019-22.
The Denver Broncos cut Clark Oct. 14 after he had no sacks playing 29% of snaps in two games for them early this season.
Why Seattle had brought back Clark
The Seahawks signed Clark Oct. 26. That was in the wake of Nwosu tearing his pectoral muscle in the team’s win over Arizona Oct. 22 and needing season-ending surgery.
“There was a spot there that we had a shot with Frank, and having a background and history with him,” Carroll said at the time. “It’s a natural spot for him to play with us (as edge rusher). We will see if he can get in the rotation and help us out.”
The plan was for Clark to join rookie Derick Hall in playing outside linebacker opposite starter Boye Mafe, the team’s sack leader this season.
But Clark ultimately played just 32% of snaps in his second Seattle go-round.
Clark had 35 sacks in four seasons with the Seahawks (2015-18). Those were his first four in the NFL after Michigan suspended him from his final college season following his arrest in Ohio on a domestic violence charge.
“I am going to make you proud,” Clark said to Seahawks fans and the franchise upon Seattle drafting him.
And he mostly did.
He had a 13-sack season with Seattle in 2018. When he and the team couldn’t agree on a rich, new contract in the spring of 2019, Carroll and Seahawks general manager John Schneider traded Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas City signed Clark to a five-year, $105.5 million contract with $63.5 million guaranteed. He won a Super Bowl and made three Pro Bowl teams with them, from 2019-21.
Yet Clark didn’t last through the end of his contract with the Chiefs. They released him following last season, after he had 4 1/2 sacks in 2021 and five in 2022. He was suspended for two Chiefs games last year for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. That was from his incident in June 2021 when he was arrested for possession of a concealed firearm. Clark pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 40 hours of community service.
Then came his brief, two-game, 4 1/2-month stay with the Broncos that ended this October.
Pete Carroll’s, Frank Clark’s link
Clark was Seattle’s controversial top draft choice in 2015 out of Michigan. The Seahawks selected him months after the arrest for domestic violence in Ohio took him off some teams’ draft boards.
He grew up in search of next meals as a kid in the notorious Baldwin Village section of Los Angeles. Carroll used to walk that neighborhood when he was coach at USC leading his A Better LA philanthropic organization.
Clark matured and flourished in Seattle, including as a father of a young daughter born in Bellevue early in his NFL career.
He and Jarran Reed, who also returned to the Seahawks’ defensive line this year after two seasons away, became great friends.
Reed had been lobbying Carroll and Schneider every chance he got in October to bring back Clark.
“Frank grew up with us,” Carroll said upon re-signing him two months ago. “It was a good process to see him come into the league and come in to being a young man and we had him for a lot of years there. It’s rewarding, he goes and wins a world championship at a place and has a lot of success and does good stuff.
“And then we get a chance to get him on the other end his career to see if he can come help us out some.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2023 at 12:42 PM.
