The Green Bay Packers traded away their projected starting nose tackle, Kenny Clar,k in the Micah Parsons trade last August. Clark was expected to be a one-year stopgap for the Dallas Cowboys, simply because of the way his contract was laid out. As it stands right now, he is due $21.5 million in cash in 2026, none of which is guaranteed, which is the 19th-highest cash payment for a defender this year, per Spotrac. That mark also ranks seventh among interior defensive linemen, only behind Chris Jones ($31.1 million), Alim McNeill ($24 million), DeForest Buckner ($23 million), Milton Williams ($23 million), Daron Payne ($22.4 million), Nnamdi Madubuike ($22 million) and Quinnen Williams ($21.75 million).
While Clark still has some gas in the tank and has a role in the league, it’s going to be tough to find a team willing to pay him that much cash for just one year of play in 2026. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell thinks that Clark could potentially avoid being a cap casualty this offseason, though, as he listed Clark as 1 of 11 potential player trades for this offseason.
His proposed trade involves the Cowboys giving up Clark and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for a 2027 sixth-round pick. This is interesting, from a Packers perspective, on a couple of levels.
Last year, the Bengals’ nose tackle was T.J. Slaton, who was signed from Green Bay on a two-year, $15.1 million deal. If Cincinnati trades for Clark, the Bengals could move off Slaton for $6.66 million of cap relief. Packers fans have been circling either of those nose tackles as potential signings this offseason, as Green Bay desperately needs a starting nose tackle, but the Packers are incentivized to go into the cap casualty market this offseason because of their compensatory pick situation.
For what it’s worth, when Over the Cap listed their top-100 potential cap casualties this offseason, Clark didn’t make the cut, but T.J. Slaton was ranked 47th with a -$2.8 million “valuation above starter median.”
Secondly, the Bengals’ defensive line coach is Jerry Montgomery, who was in Green Bay from 2015 to 2023, meaning he coached the linemen under Dom Capers, Mike Pettine and Joe Barry. He was part of the staff both when the Packers drafted Clark and Slaton, so there’s some crossover with these players, and we’ve already seen one reunion with Slaton already.
A Clark trade would need to happen before the third day of the new league year (the start of free agency), as he’s due an $11 million roster bonus on that date, which the Cowboys would be on the hook for if he’s still on the roster.
Here are some comments that Barnwell made about the potential trade:
So, if the Cowboys are going to cut Clark and he won’t land the same caliber of contract in free agency, the alternative might include taking a pay cut to the $14 million range and netting the Cowboys a swap of late-round picks in the process.
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Montgomery needs all the help he can get in Cincinnati, where the Bengals ranked 29th in EPA per play against designed rushes last season.
If Clark is willing to take a pay cut to play for Montgomery off a trade, rather than testing the market, then he would have to like Montgomery a lot. Personally, I think it’s more likely that he just rolls into unrestricted free agency, given the options, but maybe the connection with his former coach makes a difference.
For that it’s worth, the only on-field defensive coach whom the Packers retained between the Jeff Hafley and Jonathan Gannon staffs is defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington, who coached Clark throughout the offseason up until his late-August trade. So there’s still some familiarity left in Green Bay, even though there’s new leadership at the top of the defense. Maybe the Packers should be in these conversations, too, if Clark is willing to take a pay cut before seeing the market.