Are the New Orleans Saints set at defensive end? There’s no question that the group has a lot to prove, but at the same time the Saints have kind of boxed themselves into a corner. Cameron Jordan and Carl Granderson are playing on lucrative extensions, while Tanoh Kpassagnon signed an extension earlier this spring. Highly-drafted players like Payton Turner and Isaiah Foskey need snaps, and they’ve rounded out the group by bringing in depth pieces Jabari Zuniga and Niko Lalos from the XFL.
But there might be room for one more on top of the depth chart, putting someone like Turner or Kpassagnon on the trade block when it comes time for roster cuts in September. Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton suggested the Saints pursue former Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark as the missing piece for their pass-rush unit, writing:
At 29 years old, Frank Clark is on the back end of his prime years, but he could help a pass rush and make plays in the backfield.
During the 2022 regular season, he registered 39 tackles, eight for loss, five sacks and 24 pressures. In the Kansas City Chiefs’ three playoff outings en route to a Super Bowl victory, he recorded seven tackles, three for loss and 2.5 sacks.
With Jordan and Clark on the edges, the Saints could significantly boost a defensive unit that finished with the fourth-lowest pressure rate (17.5 percent) last season.
Clark is a controversial player. He’s notorious among Chiefs fans for coasting through the regular season before playing with greater effort in December and January, and that’s reflected in his productivity scores — he’s rightfully seen as one of the most-effective postseason pass rushers of all time. If he’s willing to play on a reduced role at an appropriate salary, this might make sense, but it wouldn’t be wise of the Saints to sideline younger, hungry players for a past-his-prime veteran right out of the gate.
And that doesn’t get into his off-the-field issues. Clark is actively serving probation following firearm violations in Los Angeles last summer. He has a history of legal issues running back to his college days, when he was dismissed from Michigan’s program following domestic violence allegations in 2014 and an arrest on home invasion felony charges in 2012. NFL teams aren’t expected to be moral authorities, and head coach Dennis Allen made his stance on that clear by pursuing Deshaun Watson so heavily last year and bringing in Jon Gruden as a consultant last week, but there’s a big difference between overlooking someone’s mistake and accepting a pattern of poor decisions.
