Green Bay Packers By Position: Kenny Clark Needs Help Up Front

This is the fifth story in a series examining Green Bay’s positional groups. I’ve already looked at the running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks and offensive line.

There was euphoria around Green Bay as training camp began Saturday morning.

Nose tackle Kenny Clark, one of the NFL’s elite, young defenders, signed a four-year contract extension worth $70 million.

Keeping Clark was essential for a defense that hasn’t ranked in the top-10 since its 2010 Super Bowl championship season. But locking Clark up for the long-term will be like plugging a leak with bubble gum if the Packers can’t find him some help.

While Clark is an All-Pro caliber player, Green Bay’s remaining defensive line talent is mediocre, at best. And if the Packers hope to take a step forward, they’ll need at least one of their young prospects to take a major step forward.

“I think we do have the guys in the room,” Clark said. “I think our scheme is great. Coach puts us in a lot of situations where we can win one-on-one (matchups) in the run and the pass. We’ve just got to capitalize.

“It’s going to be a mentality. It’s going to take guys playing with great technique and not just playing their gap and do their gap. Everybody’s got to play a gap and a half – especially in this defense.”

Green Bay finished last season ranked 23^rd in rushing defense (120.1) and 24^th in yards allowed per carry (4.7). Things got even worse in the playoffs, when the Packers allowed 197.5 rushing yards per game and 6.0 yards per carry.

The bottom fell out during Green Bay’s 37-20 loss to San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game. The 49ers ran for a remarkable 285 yards on 42 carries (6.8 average) that day, and journeyman Raheem Mostert set a San Francisco record with 220 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns.

“I mean, I can’t use any other phrase other than beyond disappointing,” Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “It’s tough to realize that we played our worst game at the worst time, but at the same point, we own it. We’re not running away from it.

“I mean, we went through it in detail with the staff. We talked to the players about it. There’s no excuses being offered. We just weren’t good enough in every aspect, whether it was scheme, effort, energy, technique.”

Those haven’t been issues for Clark since the Packers took him with the 27^th pick in the 2016 draft.

Clark, who’s still just 24, equaled his career-high with 6.0 sacks last year. And according to Pro Football Focus, Clark’s 62 pressures trailed only Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams (80).

Clark was second on the Packers with 89 tackles, had 11 tackles for loss and 28 quarterback hits.

Clark, who was entering the final year of his contract, signed an extension last weekend that includes a $25 million signing bonus and pays him $54 million over the next three years. Clark became the highest-paid nose tackle and the 12^th-highest paid defensive player in the NFL.

“I couldn’t be happier for Kenny,” Packers coach LaFleur said. “Kenny is the epitome of what we’re all about here. He works hard on a daily basis. He is becoming more of a vocal leader for us and just really happy for him.”

While Clark is a staple in Green Bay’s defense, he could certainly use more help up front.

Defensive end Dean Lowry signed a three-year, $20.325 million contract extension before last season. He was then mediocre in 2019.

Lowry didn’t have a sack last year, and according to PFF, his pressure count fell from 29 in 2018 to 20 a year ago. Lowry was respectable against the run, but the Packers need more from a player who will count $5.2 million against the salary cap this season.

“I’ve always prided myself on being consistent,” Lowry said. “I might not always have the flashiest plays, but I think I’m someone my coaches can count on, my teammates can count on to be out there and do my job. I think that’s very valuable to have a guy who’s out there doing his job week in and week out.”

Second-year defensive end Kingsley Keke could be poised to take a second-year jump. Keke, a fifth-round draft pick in 2019, is quick, moves well and plays with good effort.

Keke played just 94 out of 1,040 defensive snaps during the regular season (9.0%), though. And in the final four games, Keke played only 14 out of 261 snaps (5.4%).

Clearly, Keke has miles to travel to become someone the Packers rely heavily on.

“You know, a guy that has a lot of potential,” Clark said when asked to describe Keke. “I think he has a lot of potential to be a great rusher, too. Not only he can stop the run, I think he can be a really good rusher. He’s really athletic, has a lot of ability.”

Defensive end Tyler Lancaster, an undrafted player in 2018, cracked the starting lineup last year and made 10 starts. But the harsh reality is Lancaster (1.5 sacks, 30 tackles) wouldn’t start for almost any other team.

Montravius Adams, a third-round draft pick in 2017, was handed a starting job after Mike Daniels was released last summer. But Adams (19 tackles) quickly fell out of favor, lost his spot to Lancaster and faded to black. In fact, over the final two games of the regular season, Adams played just two snaps.

Adams was arrested in May on three different misdemeanor charges, including marijuana possession and driving without vehicle registration. He was later released on bond.

After a rough 12-month stretch, there’s no guarantee Adams will make the team this summer.

“Certainly, we have high expectations,” LaFleur said of Adams. “He’s a very talented guy. He always gives great effort, it’s just we have to make sure he knows what to do. We have to be able to trust him to put him out there. I think he has grown, there’s no doubt about it. He knows it as well as all our coaches, it’s a big year for Mon.”

After a rough 2019 campaign, it’s a big year for Green Bay’s entire defensive line.

“We’ve got to make the plays where we’re supposed to make the plays and sometimes we’ve got to have that mentality to make plays when it’s not asked of us,” Clark said. “I’m going to constantly be preaching that to our defensive line this year and it’s just not good enough just to be doing your job. You don’t want to just go off and do somebody else’s, but you want to knock your man back and be able to play both gaps and make it tough on offenses. So that’s the plan this year and we’ve just got to be more consistent as a defensive line, period.”