ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Somewhere between early June, when the Denver Broncos signed him to a one-year $7 million contract, and Sunday's game against the New York Jets, when more playing time was given to Ronnie Perkins, Frank Clark fell out of favor with the Broncos' coaching staff.
Clark has already played his last game for the Broncos, as a source confirmed to 9NEWS. He and the team have mutually agreed to trade the 9-year veteran outside linebacker with 58.5 career regular-season sacks, and 13.5 more in the postseason which ranks him No. 3 all-time in NFL history.
Clark, 30, has even surrendered up to $4.04 million - $1.686 million in base salary, $360,000 in roster bonus and $1.99 million in incentives -- to help facilitate a trade.
Clark's original deal with the Broncos was one year, $5.51 million ($3.5 million salary; $1.5 signing bonus; $510,000 roster bonus, or $30,000 per game). He also had $1.99 million in incentives that were tied to sacks and play time to bring the deal to $7 million with $5 million fully guaranteed.
In his new deal with the Broncos, all but a pro-rated minimum salary of $841,389, has been wiped away.
Clark and the Broncos went sideways from the start. Even though a contract agreement was reached before the team's mandatory minicamp in June, he requested and received permission from coach Sean Payton to skip the three-day practice session.
In training camp, Clark suffered from illness and a thumb injury and missed enough time for Jonathon Cooper, a 7th-round pick in 2021, to beat him out as an outside linebacker starter. Clark played just 25 of a possible 59 snaps and had two tackles in the season-opening loss against the Raiders.
Clark then suffered a strained groin and hip abductor in practice prior to the Broncos' week 2 game against Washington and missed three games. Meanwhile, the Broncos traded away, rather than released, another veteran outside pass rusher in Randy Gregory.
Clark returned to play in game 5 this past Sunday against the Jets, but got in for just 11 of a possible 65 defensive snaps while Perkins -- a third-year player who was recently signed off New England's practice squad -- played 15 snaps in his NFL debut.
Clark was legitimately ill and excused from practice Tuesday, but according to sources, his departure was already set in motion as his new pay cut was submitted to the league office Wednesday.
The Broncos' outside linebacker group now includes Cooper and Nik Bonitto as starters, Perkins and Thomas Incoom as backups and Baron Browning who is expected back from his knee injury next week against Green Bay.
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