Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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The position likely does have a lot to do with it. Only seven defensive tackles were included on this year's "Top 100." Although Donald came at No. 3 overall, you'd have to go all the way to No. 52 to find the next defensive tackle (Kansas City's Chris Jones).
At the same time, the 2019 season was still a breakthrough in many ways for Clark. He played a career-high 869 defensive snaps and made his first Pro Bowl appearance after posting six sacks for the second consecutive year.
Entering a contract year in 2020, Clark had to make the best of unusual circumstances this offseason in preparation for his fifth NFL season. With his usual training facility, ProActive, closed for a time, Clark independently lifted tires, pulled buses and did whatever he could to keep his training on schedule.
Thankful for his family's health, Clark said he never considered opting out this season. Instead, he returned this week to a surreal scene at Lambeau Field with sanitizer stations everywhere and mask mandates throughout the facility.
"It's different but it's pretty cool. I'm just excited to be back in the locker room," Clark said. "The defensive line, we still have our same meeting room. We're spread out a lot more. Even like the team meetings, the defensive meetings with everybody in there, we do some of those in the CRIC and stuff like that, so we're able to spread out and keep our distance away from guys."
The Packers left the defensive line relatively unchanged this offseason. General Manager Brian Gutekunst signed veteran Treyvon Hester but decided against drafting a defensive lineman, a first in 24 years for the Packers.
Instead, Green Bay expects to see growth from a young defensive line that returns everyone from last season, including Clark, Dean Lowry, Tyler Lancaster, Montravius Adams and 2019 fifth-round draft choice Kingsley Keke.
As many strides as the defense made under coordinator Mike Pettine, there was a somewhat bitter aftertaste to the season after the Packers allowed 285 rushing yards in their 37-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.