The Ravens will be moving on from one of their veteran defensive starters and leaders in the locker room.
Baltimore is set to trade safety Chuck Clark to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick, according to ESPN. The deal cannot be completed until the start of the new league year this Wednesday, but the move will save just over $4 million in salary cap space for the Ravens, who began Thursday more than $9 million over the cap after placing the non-exclusive franchise tag on quarterback Lamar Jackson earlier this week.
Clark will turn 28 next month and has served as a reliable starter over the last four seasons, playing 100% of the defensive snaps in each of the last three years and relaying the defensive calls in the huddle. However, the arrivals of standout free-agent safety Marcus Williams and first-round safety Kyle Hamilton last offseason left Clark’s long-term future in doubt, prompting him to request a trade last spring. When a sufficient offer never materialized, the sides came to an understanding with a restructured deal and a slight bump in pay for 2022. The day after the season-ending playoff loss in Cincinnati, Clark still expressed some hope about remaining with the Ravens, but it was widely expected that they would trade or release Clark this offseason.
“This is the team that drafted me. I’ve been here all my career,” said Clark, who was voted by teammates as the Ravens nominee for the 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. “I’m comfortable here. I know the other guys, the locker room, the environment. I don’t know. Sometimes, you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone. You never know what’s going to happen.”
The Virginia Tech product registered a career-high 101 tackles and added four pass breakups in 17 starts this past season. Pro Football Focus graded Clark 46th out of 88 qualified safeties in 2022 and graded him 41st or better in each of the previous three seasons.
Easily one of the best sixth-round picks in franchise history, the 6-foot, 209-pound Clark arrived in 2017 and immediately contributed on special teams before gradually earning more defensive playing time in his second year. A serious knee injury to Tony Jefferson early in the 2019 campaign pushed Clark into a starting role, a job he didn’t relinquish as the Ravens released the former starter and awarded Clark with a three-year, $15.3 million contract extension the following offseason. Clark’s versatility and durability have undoubtedly been valuable in the Baltimore secondary as he hadn’t missed a game since his rookie year.
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His pending departure paves the way for Hamilton to step into an every-down role after the Notre Dame product settled in as Baltimore’s nickel back over the second half of his rookie season. Though head coach John Harbaugh confirmed earlier this month that the Ravens still viewed Hamilton as a safety in the big picture, defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald is still likely to want to take advantage of his versatility by moving him around in different sub packages, something Baltimore had done with Clark for years. However, the Ravens also haven’t shied away from using three-safety packages in recent years, and Geno Stone — who started seven games in place of the injured Williams last season — is set to become a restricted free agent next week.
Even with Clark’s pending trade, general manager Eric DeCosta will need to make additional moves with Baltimore still projected to be over the salary cap.
