Broncos to release edge rusher Frank Clark
Oct 13, 2023, 9:06 AM
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — If it’s Friday, the Broncos must be parting ways with a veteran edge rusher.
Seven days after the team traded Randy Gregory to the San Francisco 49ers as part of a late-round draft-pick exchange, the Broncos will release Frank Clark, the former Seahawks and Chiefs pass rusher who signed with the team in June.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the news.
A day earlier, Schefter told 104.3 The Fan that Clark and the Broncos ”are getting divorced” in the wake of the news that Clark took a pay cut Wednesday. It was just a matter of whether Clark would be traded or released.
The move will officially end an underwhelming stint that didn’t even last four months from the signing of the contract to the release. Clark played in just two of the Broncos’ six games this season, failing to record a sack.
In the end, Clark will probably be most remembered not for anything he did on the field, but for his comments about the state of the Broncos-Chiefs rivalry — specifically that it wasn’t a “rivalry” — on the first Saturday of training camp.
Frank Clark never got to play against his old team while wearing a Broncos uniform. He suffered a partially-torn abductor muscle during practice on Sept. 13. He returned to play 11 snaps against the New York Jets three-and-a-half weeks later.
The final stat line for Clark as a Bronco is depressing:
- Games played: 2
- Snaps played: 36
- Tackles: 2
- QB hits: 0
- Sacks: 0
For Broncos fans with long memories, it calls to mind the 2007 investment in Simeon Rice, another aging edge rusher. Rice, a 12-year veteran and three-time Pro Bowler, had zero sacks, 7 tackles and a single QB hit over six games played before the Broncos released him.
For now, though, the twin expenditures in Gregory and Clark haunt the Broncos. In back-to-back offseasons, the Broncos signed the two veterans. Gregory was the far pricier of the two, at $28 million guaranteed.
Over 12 games played between the duo, the Broncos got 3 sacks.
It’s another douse of lighter fluid on a burning pile of cash from the club’s expenditures over the last several years that haven’t panned out.
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