Frank Clark’s short, strange journey with the Broncos is coming to an end.
Denver intends to trade or release him over the coming days after agreeing with the veteran pass-rusher to a restructured deal that facilitates either outcome, sources confirmed to The Denver Post.
The writing’s been slowly stretching across the wall, but it dialed up a notch this week when Clark didn’t practice Tuesday due to a reported illness and then was ruled out for Thursday night’s game against his old team, Kansas City.
Clark was in the locker room briefly during the time open to reporters Tuesday but Broncos media relations staff said he was not available for interview due to his illness.
The Broncos have already traded one veteran pass rusher in Randy Gregory, who went to San Francisco last week along with a 2024 seventh-round pick in return for a 2024 sixth-round pick, and now may end up dealing another.
Just Tuesday, Denver coach Sean Payton said, “We’re not looking to do business with any of our players.”
Clark appeared in just two games for Denver, playing in the opener against Las Vegas but injuring an adductor muscle near his hip. He returned to play 11 snaps against the Jets last week. His totals as a Bronco: 36 snaps and two tackles.
Denver originally signed Clark to a one-year deal with $5.45 million guaranteed, including a $3.5 million base salary and a $1.5 million signing bonus. In agreeing to restructure the deal, Clark reduced his base salary to the veteran minimum for the rest of the season, a source confirmed. A team that trades for him would be on the hook for only the prorated veteran’s minimum over the remainder of the season, or about $841,000.
Clark, then, gave up $1.68 million in guaranteed base salary to make a trade more likely. NFL Network first reported the restructured deal.
The Broncos go forward with Jonathon Cooper and Nik Bonitto as the starting pair and should get third-year man Baron Browning back from offseason knee surgery as soon as next weekend against Green Bay. He started the season on the physically unable to perform list but returned to practice last week.
Dulcich returns. The Broncos activated tight end Greg Dulcich (hamstring) from injured reserve Thursday. He’d been out since the first half of a Week 1 loss to Las Vegas, but returned to practice this week and passed every test Denver’s training staff had for him.
The Broncos also elevated WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey and DT Tyler Lancaster from the practice squad for the game.
In addition to Clark and D.J. Jones (knee), Denver’s inactives Thursday night included DL Elijah Garcia, OLB Thomas Incoom, S JL Skinner, TE Nate Adkins and C Alex Forsyth.
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