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Both Clark and Van Ness battled lingering injuries in 2024.
The Packers’ defense made strides in 2024, but the defensive line still found itself as a disappointing supporting character. Now we’re learning a bit more about why that was.
Veteran defensive tackle Kenny Clark revealed Tuesday that he played most of 2024 with a toe injury that required offseason surgery. Now healthy, he figures to get back into form for 2025 — which could be his final season in Green Bay due to the structure of his contract.
But Clark isn’t the only one who battled injuries in 2024. Edge rusher Lukas Van Ness also dealt with a lingering injury: a broken thumb. Initially described as a minor injury, Van Ness was in a cast well into the latter half of the season, limiting his ability to use his hands to engage with opposing blockers.
Do those injuries fully explain the overall poor performance of the Packers’ defensive linemen and edge rushers in 2024? No, not at all. Everyone struggled last year, and only two of them had significant injury excuses.
But every weakened support threatens the overall integrity of a structure, and Clark and Van Ness were supposed to be core contributors last year. If they’re healthier this year, that’s a step in the right direction.
Clark had the worst season of his career in 2024, but hopefully, with 10 healthy toes, he’ll be better this season.
Van Ness seemed like a fit as an interior rusher from the moment he was drafted, but has barely gotten a chance to do it in his first two seasons. That seems to be changing.
New Packers’ defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington has the background to implement just about any defensive line strategy.
Doubs had a rough go of it in 2024, but he’s still a crucial part of the Packers’ offense.
Tom just has to avoid major injury between now and training camp and he’ll secure himself a boatload of money.
Nobody can quite figure out how the bottle got to Florida from Hawaii, but it did.
