Research: What Does Chuck Clark Do Finest?

The Pittsburgh Steelers continued to add to their roster, signing safety Chuck Clark a couple of days ago. He has played in seven NFL seasons, mostly with the Ravens, but missed 2023 with an ACL injury and was with the Jets last year. The best parts of Clark’s game then, and through his career, have been tackling and run defense, qualities Pittsburgh has prioritized this offseason.

The goal of this article is to examine his last season, compare it to the league and current/former Steelers safeties, and also provide career numbers.

First, let’s look at overall tackling among players with a minimum of 700 total snaps (59 qualifiers), viewing Pro Football Focus (PFF) tackle grades, missed tackle rates, and total snaps for dot sizes:

While these were some of Clark’s better stats, the visual gives context to several other safeties providing more in 2024. This includes returning Steeler DeShon Elliott, who topped the visual with a fantastic season in these terms. Minkah Fitzpatrick lands on the top right, but as you probably know was traded back to his original team, the Miami Dolphins.

Clark lands just above the mean with an 11.1-percent missed-tackle rate, ranking 28th out of the 59 qualifiers. For comparison, Elliott’s stellar 1.8 percent was first by a long shot (second was 3.7 percent), and Fitzpatrick’s 8.8-percent missed-tackle rate ranked 14th.

In terms of tackling grades, Elliott’s 90.3 (second best) was one of only two qualifiers above 90, with Fitzpatrick coming in at 81.8 (12th). Clark’s 63.9 tackling grade was far lower, with a below-the-mean 33rd rank. So, clearly not an upgrade compared to the Steelers’ starting safeties last year.

Another new safety in Pittsburgh is Juan Thornhill. He didn’t qualify on the visual with only 401 total snaps in 2024. He didn’t have the strongest of seasons either, especially in these stats. A poor 45.0 tackling grade and 22.6-percent missed-tackle rate were at the bottom of the league.

There is a bright side to Clark when looking at his career numbers. He has a better 8.8-percent missed-tackle rate over seven seasons. This ironically matches Fitzpatrick’s 2024 number, so Clark has a resume of above-average results in avoiding missed tackles.

Here are the players of interest total missed tackle rates:

Elliott: 7.8
Clark: 8.8
Fitzpatrick: 11.2
Thornhill: 14.6

The hope is that Clark can positively trend back toward his career number in 2025. With all the changes to Pittsburgh’s secondary, this could go a long way to earning opportunities for the Black and Gold.

Now let’s look at run defense. Here are run missed-tackle rates and run-stop rates (unsuccessful run play for the offense):

Once again, we see that Elliott was the best player in our sights by far. He ranked first among qualifiers at a 1.8-percent run missed-tackle rate, with second place coming in substantially lower (4.3 percent), and a fourth rank in run-stop rate (5.7 percent).

An important factor to this is alignments, with Elliott playing in the box primarily in 2024 compared to Fitzpatrick and Clark’s primary snaps coming at deep safety. Fitzpatrick had the better 1.3-percent run-stop rate, but that tied for fourth-worst among 51 qualifiers (300 run-defense snaps).

Also, Fitzpatrick landed just below the mean with a 14.3-percent run missed-tackle rate, tied for 26th. Clark was slightly above average, besting that number with a 12.5-percent run missed-tackle rate (T-22nd). But only a 1.0-percent run-stop rate, tied for second worst last season.

Here are Clark’s career run stop and run missed tackle stats:

2024: 1.0-percent run-stop rate, 12.5-percent run missed-tackle rate
2023: injured
2022: 2.6-percent run-stop rate, 6.9-percent run missed-tackle rate
2021: 4.2-percent run-stop rate, 2.6-percent run missed-tackle rate
2020: 4.2-percent run-stop rate, 5.6-percent run missed-tackle rate
2019: 4.2-percent run-stop rate, 13.2-percent run missed-tackle rate
2018: 2.8-percent run-stop rate, 14.3-percent run missed-tackle rate
2017: 11.1-percent run-stop rate, 0.0-percent run missed-tackle rate

So, things looked better through the majority of his career as a Raven, a theme throughout the article. Clark’s career totals would have landed him well above the mean on the run defense plot.

In fact, Clark has the best career numbers of the four players in our sights:

Chuck Clark Career: 4.3-percent run-stop rate, 7.9-percent run missed-tackle rate
DeShon Elliott Career: 3.0-percent run-stop rate, 8.6-percent run missed-tackle rate
Minkah Fitzpatrick Career: 1.7-percent run-stop rate, 10.9-percent run missed-tackle rate
Juan Thornhill Career: 1.6-percent run stop rate, 16.5-percent run missed-tackle rate

This is quite an attractive sight, especially considering Clark’s versatility over his career: 1,871 free safety snaps, 1,750 in the box, and 672 slot reps as the most substantial. Add 487 on the edge of the defensive line, and even 162 at outside corner, and Clark’s production becomes all the more impressive.

Here’s to hoping the 2024 season with the Jets was a one off, and that Clark can rekindle some of his overall positive play, at least as a tackler and run defender, with the 2025 Steelers.