Frank Clark is ready for a bounce-back season with the Kansas City Chiefs, rewarding the team’s faith in the veteran pass rusher by bringing him back this offseason. Clark, who had just 4.5 sacks last season (the lowest total since his rookie year), came into training camp looking in much better shape thanks to shedding some pounds.
How was Clark able to lose weight? A newfound commitment on his life habits.
“One of the main things is I cut a lot of red meat out. I stopped drinking liquor,” Clark said Saturday. “Alcohol is a big factor in a lot of things as far as weight, that cut, it all is sugar. So at the end of the day, I stopped drinking liquor right after the season, honestly. It was February (when) I was sick, having stomach problems and gastrointestinal problems.
“I haven’t had any since I stopped drinking liquor and it kind of started making more sense. As I’m going on, I’m training, I feel my body is responding to me. I’m able to get up. I’m able to work out all times of day, all times of night. It was a commitment I made.”
A vital player toward the Chiefs’ Super Bowl title three seasons ago, Clark hasn’t been able to put up the sack numbers in Kansas City like he did with the Seattle Seahawks. Clark has 18.5 sacks in his three seasons with the Chiefs, with the sack totals diminishing each year.
Clark finished with just 39 pressures last year, but had a pressure time of 3.38 seconds to get to the quarterback — his quickest total since 2018. He also had 17 quarterback hits and 33 hurries, totals that were up from the previous season.
The Chiefs restructured Clark’s contract this offseason as he restructured his deal and took a paycut in the process. Clark will just make $24.225 million in base salary over the final two years of his deal and has a cap number of $13.7 million this year (increases to $28.675 million next year as the Chiefs can save just over $9 million by releasing or trading him).
Clark wants to stay in Kansas City and took the sacrifice to make sure he’s primed to have a big season.
“I love it here. I love Chiefs Kingdom,” Clark said. “We built something special whenever I came here. Four years later, I just love it here. I love my teammates. My boy Chris Jones is one of my best friends. We got unfinished work.
“I feel like last year we left off on a pretty sour taste. (We) had a lot of high hopes but didn’t accomplish our goals. (We) didn’t win the AFC Championship, didn’t make it back to the Super Bowl. You know how we are, we got high standards here. We want to set the bar high and keep it there.
“And like I said, we left on a sour note. I wanted to come back and finish on a good note.”
