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Moments after it was announced that the Seattle Seahawks had traded defensive end Frank Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs for a first and second round pick, the Chiefs had also announced a new five-year, $105.5 million contract for Clark.
Chiefs and Frank Clark reached agreement on a 5 yrs, $105.5 million contract - greater total than DeMarcus Lawrence, with $63.5 million guaranteed, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 23, 2019
The deal solidifies what we already knew: the $20 million edge rusher is here now and here to stay. It wasn’t long ago that I held a benchmark of $15 million as “too much to pay” per year for a non-quarterback and now that figure has to go above $20. The Chiefs did not want to pay Dee Ford the $87.5 million he got after he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2020 second round pick (one of those picks was just deal to Seattle) but were perfectly okay with doing almost $20 million more than that for Clark.
He also got $63.5 million guaranteed, which is actually less than the $65 million DeMarcus Lawrence got from the Dallas Cowboys. But it’s not as though either player is going anywhere soon. Both would be costly to cut prior to 2023.
However, it didn’t cost the Seahawks anything to move on from Clark. It actually saved them $17 million for now... and maybe $105.5 million later.