Quote:
Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy
(Post 16415801)
Still just practice... Just saying...
I'll get excited when I see it during an actual game.
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Oh, I concur wholeheartedly.
I lost faith in Clark about mid-season last year. So, saying anything positive about him now feels like cold ashes for sure.
But the facts are the facts: Clark is beating the tar about of OBJ in practice on a fairly regular basis. And he looked fast in the Bears game. Injuries aside, he's going to be a problem for opposing OTs this year. And at the end of the day, he's a smart football player. If he can get to his spot even a half step quicker, he can really affect the play even if he doesn't actually get a sack.
what I want to see is a more violent Frank. Sometimes I've felt like he could've really laid the wood on a tackle but for some reason chose to just make a fundamentally sound tackle. To really pique my interest, I'd have to see him really put the shoes to a ball-carrier before I'm sold on the new Frank Clark.
So, to be clear, I like the speed of the new Frank, but I still need to see a lot more before I buy into this Second Coming. To be specific, I'd have to see at least 4 sacks by Clark before the bye week. That'd be a sack each vs. Ryan, Brady, and Carr, the least mobile of the first seven opposing QBs. I have to believe that an above average DE (what the Chiefs paid for) could get at least one sack vs. the remaining four more mobile QBs. That's not a big ask, imo.
Which is why I thought Clark could reasonably expect to get at least 11 sacks this season. I mean, think about it: if he can get at least four sacks before the bye, then look at the remaining schedule in terms of opposing OLs.
Between the Titans, Jags, Texans, and Seahawks (four of the worst OLS in the league) how could Frank not get at least 3-4 sacks? With either Dunlap or Karlaftis holding down the other side? If Clark is at least 75% as smart as I think he is, he should feast in those 8 games. 6-8 sacks aren't unreasonable.
Which leaves 6 whole games to manufacture just three or four sacks.
Really he should blow that number out of the water, but last season's performance wrecked my confidence in my own eyes. If I was right all along, then Frank should tally at least 12 or 13 sacks in the 2022 regular season.
But just reading that makes me cringe a little. I don't believe it myself.
At this point I'll settle for just timely sacks over numbers. I'll easily accept 6-8 sacks on the season if they're all pivotal moments. No one remembers every sack of Reggie's last season. What they remember is his last sacks. His game-changing sacks. Give me that and I could care less just how many Frank gets this year.