As the Broncos put together the last of their prep work for the New York Jets in practice late last week, a familiar scene played out in the outside linebackers group.
During an individual period open to reporters, position coach Michael Wilhoite gave instructions on the block-shedding move to work and his guys started through the drill.
Partway through, they stopped for a correction and a demonstration.
Not from Wilhoite, but from Frank Clark.
The veteran pass-rusher hasn’t been with the Broncos long, but this is a regular occurrence for the now elder statesman in a mostly young group.
And when Clark coaches, his teammates listen.
“His coaching style is wild,” third-year outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper told The Denver Post. “It’s good. He’s very direct with what he shows you. He’s very clear and he definitely knows how to show you throughout his movements. I don’t know, I feel like when it comes to him telling you to do something, you understand what he’s trying to tell you.”
Coach Clark, of course, is not the role envisioned this summer when the Broncos gave him $5.45 million guaranteed on a one-year deal. They thought he’d maybe serve as the last piece to fortify a group set to open the season without Baron Browning.
Nothing’s gone to plan for Denver, though, particularly on Vance Joseph’s defense. They’re the worst unit in the NFL, dead last in categories from points allowed to rushing yards allowed to passing efficiency. They’ve already jettisoned outside linebacker Randy Gregory and eaten $10 million in salary in the process. They’re long on problems and short on simple solutions.
For Clark, too, it’s been a rough start. He injured his adductor muscle in practice leading into Week 2 and missed three games before returning to play 11 snaps against the Jets last week. Not only that, but he won’t even get the chance to add to his playing time against his old team Thursday night when the Broncos visit Kansas City, the team Clark won two Super Bowls with over the past four years.
The Broncos on Wednesday ruled him out due to an illness.
Clark wasn’t made available to reporters Tuesday because of the illness, though he was in the locker room for a few minutes during the portion open to reporters. Nonetheless, he made his thoughts clear on the AFC West rivalry back in July when he said the Chiefs’ 15-game winning streak changes the vernacular required regarding the matchup.
“I wouldn’t call it a rivalry. A rivalry is competitive,” Clark said then. “I’m (with) the Broncos now. I’ve been on the other side. We didn’t call it a rivalry.”
That was essentially the start of Denver’s Frank Clark Experience.
He missed quite a bit of time in training camp and referred to the preseason later as essentially something to get through, yet he took clear pride in coaching up younger players and barking at his offensive counterparts.
He’s been in trouble off the field in his career — including a two-game suspension last year in Kansas City stemming from a pair of 2021 charges involving handguns — yet he draws rave reviews for his locker room presence.
He clearly isn’t afraid to say what he wants to say. The Broncos locker room is notably more reluctant to discuss injuries since Payton became the coach, yet Clark detailed the severity (grade three) and muscle (adductor) he hurt and laid out his return timeline in detail to a group of reporters around his locker.
He speaks fluently about the type of challenge the Broncos face going forward even though he’s never played for a team with a losing record and only once in the past eight years has his team failed to win double-digit games.
He has ideas about how to navigate those challenges even though he signed just for this season in the first place and even that tenure could get reduced in the coming weeks if a team calls the Broncos with the right asking price.
“You are always going to look at a specific set of guys that define: How will this team react? What is this team made of? That’s the foundation of the team,” he told The Post recently.
Clark’s short time in Denver so far has been marked as much or more by his past with the Chiefs than anything that’s actually happened with the Broncos. Even this week when coach Sean Payton was asked about the ninth-year pro’s year so far, the response came mostly in the past tense.
“He’s a physical player with experience,” Payton said. “He’s played in a lot of big spots. He’s played a lot of big games and had production. Those are the first things that I can think of.”
That makes the circumstances around the first matchup between the Broncos and Chiefs on Thursday night all the stranger, regardless of whether he makes the trip with Denver. Clark has Super Bowl rings on the home sideline and said this summer, “it’s never the end when you get the job done.”
He’s got 32 snaps and two tackles on the visiting sideline, where the job’s barely even started and there’s no guarantee it will proceed much further.
And yet, for a player who’s always been at his best in big games, it sure would have been interesting to see what Clark had in store for his old team in primetime.
“He hasn’t said anything just yet, but I’m wondering what’s going on through his mind. I hope he balls out, man,” Cooper said before Clark was ruled out.
Maybe we’ll see it in 17 days. Or maybe there’s another odd turn in this part of Clark’s NFL sojourn between now and then.
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