They fueled him when he was a rookie sixth-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2017, and again when he tore his ACL six years later.
Chuck Clark has made a living out of proving his doubters wrong, and at 31 years old, he’s out to do it again with the Detroit Lions.
“I’m still hungry like I was when I was a rookie,” Clark told the Free Press this spring. “I want it. I want to prove to everybody that I want it. I want to be an All-Pro, Pro Bowl player. You can’t even say that stuff don’t run through your mind if you ain’t got it yet, and I think that’s what keeps me [going]. I still want to prove that I’m the top of the top, like I can be in that mix.”
For now, Clark is in the mix to start at one safety spot in the Lions’ up-for-grabs secondary, and how far he takes it this fall will be determined by factors both in and out of his control.
Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch return as the Lions’ starting safeties and will keep those jobs as long as they’re “healthy enough to practice,” safeties coach Jim O’Neil said.
But Branch is expected to start training camp and perhaps the season on the physically unable to perform list. And while the Lions are targeting a training camp return for Joseph, they have no idea how his degenerative knee will hold up to the rigors of the season.
Clark and Christian Izien took most of the first-team reps at safety this spring and, along with Thomas Harper, are competing for starting jobs in Branch and Joseph’s absence.
Izien, 26, was one of the Lions’ top low-budget free-agent signings this offseason, though he spent more time playing slot cornerback than safety in his three years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Harper made nine starts at safety for the Lions in 2025.
Clark gives the Lions stability in the defensive backfield and a veteran presence coaches have raved about this spring. He has started 80 games in his nine-year career, wore the green-dot defensive communication helmet for four years with the Baltimore Ravens, and Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard described him as a “leader, leader, leader” and “man of men.”
“When Chuck’s on the field, you know where the safety is, you know what the check is, you know what the communication is. And that’s vital and important,” Sheppard said. “You talk about explosive plays, well, that’s the No. 1 component to limiting those, making sure we’re all on the same page. And that’s something – take ability aside, Chuck Clark on the field there’s rarely to never a mistake or a [mental error] with the back end. And that’s because everybody knows who’s in charge because he makes it known.”
Clark was one of the best safeties in the NFL early in his career in Baltimore, though he never was voted to the Pro Bowl.
He took over as a full-time starter for the Ravens early in the 2019 season, after Tony Jefferson tore his ACL, and said he wore the green-dot helmet immediately after he was thrust into a starting role.
The Ravens traded Clark to the New York Jets in a cost-cutting move in 2023, and Clark tore his ACL in his final OTA practice with that Jets that spring.
He missed the 2023 season, started all 12 games he played in 2024 and was out of the league last summer until he signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers in July after Pittsburgh traded starting safety Minka Fitzpatrick to the Miami Dolphins.
A rotational player most of last season, Clark finished with 51 tackles, one forced fumble and started the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Houston Texans.
“There’s not a lot of what I call Alpha communicators in the back seven,” O’Neil said. “He’s one of them. Like he can run the whole show. He can run it all back there, so I’ve been really, really impressed with him … and I think he’ll really, really help us as the season goes on.”
While Clark’s leadership has never been a question, he lingered in free agency last year because of concerns about his age (he’ll play this fall at 31 years old) and whether he’d lost a step on the field.
Clark has not had an interception since 2021, but he picked off a Jared Goff pass during situational work on the first day of minicamp last week and Sheppard saw other signs of his playmaking ability this spring.
“When it comes to athletic ability, can he still do certain things? That’s still yet to be seen, and training camp will allow us that, those four- to five-week period to see what he’s still capable of doing,” Sheppard said. “But from everything I’ve seen so far, this is the player I saw on tape, previous to his career, but more importantly the leadership has been outstanding from that player.”
Clark said he’s anxious to show what all he still has left in his 10th NFL season, and excited to do it for a Lions team that first expressed interest in signing him last spring.
A union between the two sides didn’t work out at the time, but they need each other now and likely still will come fall.
“I don’t want to call our shot too early or anything, but we got players on offense, we got good players on defense, we got good special teams so I think we’re going to play a lot of good complementary football and I’m excited,” Clark said. “It’s like you want training camp to hurry up and cause the season can’t get here quick enough.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Chuck Clark oozes leadership. Lions counting on him to make plays, too
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
