On Friday, Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark was officially charged with felony assault, facing an uncertain future as the legal system and Clark’s lawyers will sort out any potential punishment. After the dust settles there, the NFL and perhaps the team itself will have further issues for Clark.
Given the fact that a suspension now seems at least a solid possibility for Clark, even if it’s only a small part of the season (as in 1-3 games), the truth remains that a team with concerns and/or questions lingering at the edge rusher position must now be honest about the state of things and dig deeper to find any sort of real answers.
At this stage, no player in the entire National Football League comes with a bigger salary cap hit among non-quarterbacks than Clark, and that total actually goes up in each of the next two seasons. The return on investment in Clark has been a great run in short bursts when it matters most: the postseason. Unfortunately, the very long NFL season has also yielded inconsistent and limited production overall.
Opposite Clark, the Chiefs have planned to move Chris Jones outside in a bit of experimentation along the defensive front with the arrival of defensive tackle Jarran Reed. However, that’s not expected to be a full-time arrangement and if Clark is unavailable at the start of the season, it means both defensive end positions are a bit of a shrug.
Maybe Chris Jones will take to a new environment outside. Maybe Clark will avoid any real punishment. Maybe some of the other irons in the fire can take hold. But it’s also possible that the Chiefs are holding out too much hope here when the rigors of a season can often expose any and all weaknesses.
Are we really trusting Taco Charlton to not only stay healthy but become a productive, well-rounded asset? The best case scenario there seems to be as a rotational pass rusher only. Mike Danna looks the part of a productive part-timer as well. Joshua Kaindoh couldn’t produce at Florida State and is a big project to take on, so no one should be counting on anything there from the team’s fourth round pick. Tim Ward? Demone Harris? There’s gotta be better answers for a Super Bowl contender.
All is certainly not lost. The Chiefs have a lot of talent up front and Clark is capable of turning things around. No one needs to panic about a team with this much overall skill on both sides of the ball. They’re also well-coached and some players will develop.
That said, it’s also true that the Chiefs were already looking for potential help earlier this offseason when they brought in Melvin Ingram and that sort of addition makes much more sense now that Clark is also on the ropes, so to speak. The team could use use another veteran body for competition in camp and security down the road. Whether it’s literally Ingram or another player is fine, but the Chiefs have a need and the questions only keep piling up.