Frank Clark's future remains a mystery after several days

Frank Clark was supposed to be back with the Kansas City Chiefs by now. Or was he? The fact that he is still a free agent could be a bit telling. Or it could be nothing at all.

If that entire first paragraph sounds a bit circular, it is. In the last several days, the NFL rumor mill has linked the Chiefs with Clark in myriad ways—even before the Denver Broncos released him and allowed him to be a free agent to sign with whatever he team he wanted in the first place.

For the sake of review, Clark, who played the last four seasons with the Chiefs and has been a leader on the defensive front for that entire time while turning in career-defining postseason performances in two Super Bowl runs, left this offseason for the Denver Broncos after the Chiefs released him due to a cost-prohibitive contract.

From there, the Broncos had little use for Clark. On their way to another last-place run (at least as of press time) in the AFC West, the Broncos ultimately decided to release him. This came after Clark agreed to lower his salary with Denver to help facilitate a trade away from the franchise—a hope that was never fulfilled.

Will Frank Clark find a new suitor? Will he reunite with the Chiefs? There are still no answers even after several days.

Even when Clark was on the trade block, the Chiefs were mentioned often as an obvious suitor. With a young and inexperienced room of defensive ends, Clark's presence could pay dividends in multiple ways as a mentor, leader, and rotational end to keep everyone effective and rested. Clark is also a postseason hero for a Chiefs team hoping to repeat as Super Bowl champs.

When a trade didn't materialize, Clark was set free but even a week later, Clark is still waiting for someone to swoop in with an offer worthy of his time. The smoke has been so overwhelming out of K.C. that something might happen that Andy Reid commented on it to the press—saying how much he loved Frank but that nothing was done yet—and then came the rumor that Clark was coming in for a visit and physical.

So far, nothing has happened officially with that visit. Perhaps the Chiefs wanted to see how Charles Omenihu looked as part of the unit first. Perhaps the trade for Mecole Hardman just made things too busy to get things done in the same week. Or maybe the physical yielded some undesirable results. Or maybe it's none of the above.

In a week in which all the gears seemed to be churning toward the same conclusion, the machine suddenly stopped—at least for the present time. We'll find out soon enough what will happen between the Chiefs and Clark, but for now it's a mystery as to how things will turn out for all parties involved.