Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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This is the sixth in a series of stories examining the Packers’ roster, position by position, leading up to training camp. The series continues with the defensive line.
GREEN BAY – Last year’s plan for the defensive line never materialized as intended, but the Packers are in good shape for a reset this year.
Heading into 2018, the veteran trio of Kenny Clark, Mike Daniels and Muhammad Wilkerson was projected to anchor coordinator Mike Pettine’s first Green Bay defense. But Wilkerson was lost for the season in Week 3, and Clark and Daniels combined to miss nine games over the final month and a half due to injuries.
Wilkerson is gone, but Clark and Daniels return as the mainstays with more proven depth behind them due to the playing time allotted to reserves as last season wound down.
Clark (6-3, 314) is a budding star in the league who has recorded his 10½ career sacks over the last 18 games he’s played in, a standout total for an interior pass rusher. The former first-round pick from UCLA was named a Pro Bowl alternate last year and likely would have gone for the first time if not for the elbow injury that cost him the final three games of the regular season. The Packers exercised their fifth-year option on Clark this past offseason.