Kenny Clark Pulls Back the Curtain on a Pain‑Riddled 2024—and Throws His Door Open for a “Pass‑Rush Brotherhood” Reboot

Green Bay’s soft‑spoken defensive tackle finally admitted what many inside the locker room suspected all along: the 2024 campaign was a year‑long slog played on one good foot. Speaking to reporters this month, Kenny Clark revealed that the sharp dip in his production traced back to Week 1 in Brazil, when his right big toe jammed in the notoriously slick Corinthians Arena turf during the Packers’ season‑opening loss to Philadelphia. What looked like a harmless stumble metastasized into bunions, bone spurs and constant stabbing pain. “You’re taking every step and the toe is busting,” Clark said, noting that the injury “impacted me a lot” yet never kept him out of a game.

Clark still logged all 17 starts, but the tape told an unflattering story. After a career‑best 7.5‑sack explosion in 2023, he mustered only one sack last fall, and his pass‑rush win rate tumbled by more than five percentage points. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley quietly shuffled coverages to mask the deficiency, yet the front four finished in the bottom third of the league in pressures. “It was a tough year for me,” Clark conceded, explaining that cortisone shots and custom orthotics merely dulled the pain on Sundays and left him “weary” by Monday.

The relief finally came in January, days after Green Bay’s wild‑card exit, when surgeons shaved down the bone spurs and repaired ligament damage. Clark spent most of February in a walking boot and the early spring mastering one‑legged squats before graduating to sled pushes in April. By early June, he surprised staffers by taking part in individual drills for only the second time all year. “It’s done—I got the surgery and we’re moving forward,” he declared, flashing a grin that betrayed equal parts exhaustion and rebirth.

Forward, in Clark’s view, means backward—back into his own house. Starting the first weekend after OTAs, the 28‑year‑old transformed his De Pere, Wisconsin, basement into an informal study hall. Projector on one wall, barbecue smoke wafting up from the patio, and a revolving cast of edge rushers and interior linemen parked on sectional couches dissecting All‑22 film until near midnight. Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare and even second‑year bulldozer Karl Brooks have taken turns on the clicker. The group christened itself the “Pass‑Rush Brotherhood”—a nod to Von Miller’s annual summit but localized, intimate and, in Clark’s words, “built on our own scars.”

Coaches love the initiative. Hafley, whose system leans on four‑man pressure instead of exotic blitzes, calls the gatherings “a free accelerator program” that should translate into crisper stunt timing and better pocket integrity. Head coach Matt LaFleur even dropped by unannounced one Saturday and walked away praising Clark’s “player‑led accountability.” The front office crunches numbers that back the optimism: when Clark, Gary and Smith all hit the quarterback at least once in a game, Green Bay’s win percentage under LaFleur is .742. When one of the trio logs zero pressures, the figure plummets below .400.

Of course, the Brotherhood must complement health with depth. General manager Brian Gutekunst’s post‑draft press conference highlighted 2022 first‑rounder Devonte Wyatt’s surge—he recorded nearly as many pressures as Clark in 185 fewer reps—and rookie fourth‑rounder Xavier Eaddy’s bulldozer traits out of Illinois. The room is suddenly crowded, but Clark waves away concern: “There’s bread for everybody if we’re feasting in the backfield.”

The scheduling gods offer a tidy narrative arc. Green Bay opens the 2025 season abroad again—this time in London versus the Jaguars—before hosting Philadelphia in Week 3. Clark laughs at the symmetry: “Same Birds, different continent, new toe.” Yet beneath the levity lies a motivated veteran who still hears whispers that he peaked two years ago. Teammates insist the Brotherhood sessions have reignited his trademark forklift leverage. “Kenny’s got that first‑step shock back,” Gary said. “When he knocks the center off his spot, it’s dominoes.”

Film Focus: Weekends rotate themes—Friday is first‑ and second‑down tendencies, Saturday red‑zone packages, Sunday is pure pass‑rush artistry.

Community Angle: Neighborhood kids join Sunday afternoons for a free youth clinic. “They bring the joy back,” Clark said, “and keep us honest when we try to sneak cookies.”

In an NFC North suddenly top‑heavy after Detroit’s ascension and Chicago’s Caleb Williams reboot, the Packers need their defense to steal possessions, not merely survive them. A rejuvenated Clark is the linchpin: his double‑team magnetism frees edge threats and shores up a run defense that leaked 4.8 yards per carry last year. Hafley puts it bluntly: “If Kenny’s right, the rest falls in line.”

The irony of a season derailed by a foot “shot” in Brazil isn’t lost on Clark, who notes that the injection he took at halftime of that ill‑fated opener was the first of many medical quick fixes that masked rather than solved the issue. Eight months, one surgery and countless basement film sessions later, he prefers a different kind of jolt: the collective electricity of a Brotherhood hungry for redemption.