Sidenote: Hey y'all, for those that remember me, what's up, hope life is good. For those that don't, I was privileged enough to be part of Danny's army that plastered this page with football awesomeness from 2011 to 2012. Since I stopped writing, I have continued to follow the Seahawks, but also begun pursuing my Masters and Doctorate in Sport Psychology. Like many, the Frank Clark pick struck a chord with me, and I'm grateful to Danny for the opportunity to pitch into the conversation. Thanks for reading, and Go Hawks.
"A team needs leadership, and that's where I want to be." - Frank Clark, February 2014
From my perspective, I haven't heard much good -- other than some snippets here or there -- from those outside the Seahawks organization about the Seahawks and their selection of Frank Clark. Nor have I heard much good, if any, about Frank Clark the football player and person, other than the one that was involved in this incident. So much negative, very little positive.
I've been following the information coming out. I understand there is a wide array of opinion and sentiment. I know everyone has their emotions, opinions; they're all justified, as I don't walk in your shoes, period. This is most certainly not a one-size-fits all situation. I have empathy about the fact that this case is straight-up complex. We're not all going to agree and that's the way I'd expect it to be.
But, in addition to hearing and thinking about all this mayhem, I've also been thinking and wondering about how Frank Clark is doing as the outside world temporarily crashes in on him. He admits to bringing this on himself, and as an outsider I have no inside access to this situation and the nitty gritty of all the facts. Though I want it to be clear; in no way am I condoning anything about domestic violence, at all. Though, Frank Clark would likely tell you he doesn't, either.
He would probably tell you - and it sounds like a good amount of people around him who would say something similar - he is a 21-year-old NFL prospect that is much, much more than just this one big, bad story that is dominating the media cyclone right now. If you look at everything that's out there: the strong comments made by the prosecutor and a domestic violence advocate about the case; Mike Chan's take on this very site detailing a big portion of Clark the person; a video -flashing his football character - with him talking to a Michigan reporter about how the Michigan team needed to get better at competing on every down and every play that next season; all that was revealed by the team when they drafted him. There's so much hint to at an explanation as to how complex his upbringing and development was - and still is - to this still young point in his adult life, ripe at the age of 21.
I'm hopeful that the Seahawks just can't talk about this thing in public because there is confidentiality. That they couldn't talk to the witnesses or his girlfriend, Diamond Hurt, because they weren't granted the opportunity to. Maybe the Seahawks didn't feel comfortable in the situation, or didn't feel it was appropriate speaking to them.
I'm hopeful, that with all they've said, that there are facts about this that just cant be revealed to the public, facts about this player they say they researched more than anyone else in the draft.
This is a player that, before the draft, I personally thought was on the short list of elite-fit players that have the ability to become a quintessential Seahawk defensive player, based on the 225 or so available players I laid eyes on in my research. I believed 63 was a for real option for targeting him based on his day one/two flashes of ability - but, of course, there was all this other gunk. I was also drawn by his competitive spirit and engaging nature in interviews. Honestly, to me, he just seemed like a Seahawk style Boss on the field that was articulate and likeable in front of the camera.
All he's been hearing, and we've been hearing, is all the other stuff. I hope he's as excited as he can possibly be to get on the field this week.
I'm likely in the minority here when I say that I believe the front office did a solid job with what the situation dictated they could do. John Schneider talked about how the process in researching him brought them to the point where they were comfortable selecting a player they really like. Based on their explanation, the front office did their best in talking to the right people that could bring insight and explain the evolution of the situation; knowledgeable people - the counselors, other involved experts such as his lawyer - surrounding the core people in this turmoil as they go through the aftermath of the altercation.
Well, this weekend, we'll finally have some spotlight on what is being ignored -- which is Frank Clark the hungry, talented player and engaging person. That happens to have this giant shadow looming over everything at the moment. The Seahawks practice mindfulness and forgiveness, and that has led them to a wide cast of seemingly authentic and unique characters in the lockerroom; a group of characters, leaders that have some personality but also a whole dose of standup citizenship. Have we all forgotten this is a back-to-back super bowl appearing, young but already strong and growing locker room? There's a culture here. Being willing to look at someone and not hold a mistake over his or her head forever has attributed to the building of that culture. L.O.B. Love Our Brothers.
There's going to be expectations. Everyone is going to want to see this man succeed into the potential he has, here. There are going to be players, and a lot of other people, working with Clark to help and support him. That same mindfulness and forgiveness that led to others being here has led to him being here.
When I evaluate guys, I have long abided by the Ron Wolf rule - you get an idea of a player after watching about 2-3 tapes, and then you can really start to fill things in with more. While Clark has only one full tape, 3-4 shorties, and can be seen on other Michigan defensive players tapes - probably equivalent to five tapes max - the thing is, they match up. The same guy showed up on all the footage - whether it was 3-4 plays in a tape or a whole game - flashing playing the same exact way and had similar positive traits. And it was the way he played with those traits - not to mention solid production to boot - that makes me feel the way I do about what I saw on the few tapes being engrained in his game.
I know all the guys here have given you the measurables, numbers, explosion metrics that Clark provides. I personally thought some of his combine flashed ridiculous movement skills - smooth, efficient, natural - for a guy his size.
Going into the draft, when I saw him play, that same athletic defensive lineman in an oversized linebackers body that showed up at the combine showed up tape. I saw an angry, mean, tough, nasty player. He's imposing, intimidating, and fiery; has a big time motor that runs hot and consistent; is relentless; doesn't know what taking a play off means; flashes making tackles all over the field and loves chasing the football. He plays like a leader, never gives up easy yards nor makes life easy for offenders; is a highly engaged player.
Clark is functionally strong and has strength moving forward, with good agility for build and decent bend. He's smooth in his explosive qualities as a hitter, and he has room to grow with his tackling consistency. I think with him being only 21, his general strength and explosiveness has room to grow as well. It's possible his ball quickness and anticipation could improve at times, but he flashes the upside with good or better explosion from his stance and can get around the edge. Leverage is usually his friend, as are strong and powerful hips, but there is upside for consistency and improvement. In sum, this guy is in no way lacking that football instinct nor physical juice to wreak havoc.
He can play either end; stand up outside or as a sub stand up rusher inside. Guy is versatile and I bet he could play inside at sub-rusher and has room to improve within the system. He looks to have the ability to play going backwards in short zones - which would match his combine movement - as he moves like a massive OLB and maybe can mirror TE's if needed in short areas of the field.
He appears to have generaly good eyes, instincts, coordination, eye-hand-foot reaction skills, ball and flow awareness; usually doesn't waste steps to the football. When he makes a mistake with his eyes, awareness, or misses a tackle, he's willing to chase 30-40 yards down field to try to limit the outcome or get up ASAP to impact the pile. He has strong feet, good balance, deals with trash or cut blocks well to stay on his feet and continue pursuit. Sets the edge and can shed versus the run, though his technique could improve when defending alone in space. He has really good re-directive explosiveness and agility for his build that when matched with his length and giant tackling radius; he has the ability to close a hole or peel to come from behind and chop players down in a hurry - this is a unique and cool quality, at times he's kind of like a black hole for the football when it comes his way or he forces the action and impacts the play to an end.
He flashes some good pre snap intuition in situational football, is capable of stemming and shooting, making TFL's. Has athletic execution ability to get there and do what he's supposed to do, and if he's not there he's usually breathing down your neck. He has good burst for size to the ball and contact explosiveness tackling, good takedown skills, closes with momentum and a thud - this will only get better as his tackling improves. He uses some of this ability as an inside rusher too. He gets by using his lateral explosiveness, feet, quickness for size, with strong hands, but his pass rushing repertoire definitely could develop - I'd consider his technical ability as a rusher one of the few areas where he really has a lot of room to grow with consistency and continuity in coaching.
He definitely shows good or better speed to power, but also flashes a spin move, which could improve. He currently looks to get by mostly on hunger and strong/long arms/hands/placement with coordinated, functional football nasty. However, his hands and ball timing flashes great defending passing lanes - with those long arms - and looks to be a developed aspect of his game. In the end, he's the type to make plays in bunches - in the second half of the second quarter of the Northwestern game, rushing from both right and left end: he caused nearly a handful pressures, collects a sack, deflects three passes one of which is an interception, kinds of bunches.
Bottom line is I cant stress enough how much I love how this guy plays the game, and how quintessential some of his line-of-scrimmage-and-effort-Seahawk-traits, are. You can tell on the field his teammates respect his game and his effort, he looks like a lead by example type as a player. He brings some Michael Bennett and Jordan Hill type aspects with his game, not to say he's a blend of the two but that's just to try and create a mental image of the type of player they brought in with that fire. I get a good gut feeling about his mental traits as a player. For this position (a legit need), of all the players I watched, Clark was most definitely among my favorites; and that can be said in regard to any position, too. I would whole-heartedly believe Clark was a top player on the board at the time of the pick.
From the sounds of it, there were at least a few teams that were thinking of doing the same thing and soon. The Seahawks just beat them to it. And with the background issues I can't think of a better place for him to be organizationally.
It seems Clark would openly tell you he's put himself in some bad situations and made a bad choice or two. If you don't give second chances in life to people who truly take responsibility for their actions and mean what they say in taking action to fix their issues, you may miss out. As Pete and John said in their draft presser regarding this situation, "there are two sides to all stories" - some may say the third version is the truth. The Hawks were fluid-minded enough to not miss out.
An aspect that needs to be noted is Sport Psychologist Dr. Gervais was most likely involved with this pick and will remain involved in helping Clark grow. I think he was a part of this process because his job is so integrated - not only in helping this situation develop the legs to become reality, but from now to the future - that there is no way he didn't play a role here. And my speculative inclination is that among everything, he saw something he really liked in Clark - a mental eliteness, per se, about what he can bring to the team and field - because this pick brings so much potential baggage that I don't feel the Hawks would have put themselves in this spot for a mentally meh player.
Obviously, I love this guy as a player and am jacked as can be to see this go down as he comes along on the field and in this environment, especially from the perspective that the Hawks are trying to do the best possible job they can to bring that perennial championship caliber contender to the field. I'm trying to go with what is and move from there. I believe the reward could be massive with this pick. This is up there for me in terms of favorite Hawks picks, like, I haven't been this excited about a major draft addition to touch the mini camp field since Russell Wilson - uh oh, you probably just checked me into the Looney bin. It'd be foolish to assume this one will pan out like that one, but my point is I have faith in this organizations ability to handle this selection.
Sometimes sports, and ones relationship with it, can be confusing. The Seahawks openly enjoy a powerful and dynamic relationship - which they have worked so hard to build - with their fan base that one would think they would never want to jeopardize. I don't think it should come as a shock that with this relationship came this strong reaction. I further respect their approach for going this route if they truly believe in it, even if it's maybe scary as hell. They've challenged themselves by continuing to defy the mold, stuck by their facts and to who they are as an organization regardless of outside opinion. That's their norm.
When you achieve to be on the cutting edge of team building and operation, this is the unique curse that sometimes rears its head. I think the modern day Hawks currently embody, in a lot of ways, the phrase "they hate us cuz they aint us" - as so eloquently stated by James Franco in The Interview - with their recent ascension, success, and swagger on the field in the past five years. They can rub people the wrong way, play the villain with the target on their back, regardless of if they may be trying to be that villain or not. However, here it feels like good portions of people are or were hating them because they are being who they are but in a very sticky situation. The Hawks considered it before the pick, too, yet they show the willingness to pay the price of continually staying on that competitive, cutting edge.
In a draft where I believed since the day after the loss the front office was going to be highly, intrinsically motivated and on their game in trying to do big things, getting the right players for their future; I know this doesn't come across as one of those sure thing, sound picks to start it off - if anything, it presents as the opposite.
Maybe on Friday, or sometime soon, we'll see "the opposite" begin to change, and hear how that mindfulness and forgiveness ended up bringing a talented, gritty player to an organization that believes he earned this opportunity to be a part of this badass defense and Teams. At this point the result of the 2015 draft is headlined by what we've come to expect from the Seahawks and their drafts. No matter your perspectives you can't help but think how they did what they always do; another year of Paul Allen, Pete Carroll, John Schneider, and co. doing their draft weekend, turn-left-when-you-could-go-right-then-zig-when-you-could-zag, shuffle.
I know that it's not reasonable for this whole story and debate to process in a week. This is a current issue, not a resolving one; the Seahawks were simply the first to really toe this line in the new era of this topic, in this draft, after the year the NFL just had - which maybe isn't such a surprise when you remember there was a Greg Hardy tire kicking rumor, and they're always willing to work while walking on that unorthodox edge.
I imagine one would need to go through some form of acceptance in order to move forward rooting for the Seahawks success. It can and should happen whenever you feel ready for it to, if ever. But, regardless of where you are, this weekend Clark is going to be on the field. And, maybe, the story line may start to shift to - instead of hearing all the negative - being about the positive that Frank Clark could bring to Seattle.