The day his team added Chuck Clark to its secondary mix, coach Mike Tomlin was asked if the Pittsburgh Steelers viewed it as a plus that the veteran safety had played six seasons for the rival Baltimore Ravens.

“I just view players as familiar or unfamiliar,” Tomlin said in reference to Clark, who played against Tomlin’s Steelers 12 times in his career. “I care less about who they played for. (But), because he played for the Ravens, I’m familiar with him.”

Tomlin is not as familiar with Clark as is Steelers holdover strong safety DeShon Elliott, who was a teammate of Clark’s in Baltimore for four seasons.

“That’s one of my best friends,” Elliott said.

“He’s smart. He works hard, asks questions. Fast, physical guy.”

Clark, 30, is a ninth-year NFL veteran with 108 games and 75 starts on his resume. While Clark appeared in 96 of the Ravens’ 98 games during his time in Baltimore, since he was traded to the New York Jets in March 2023, he’s appeared in only 12 of 34 possible games because of a torn ACL that wiped out 2023 and less-significant ankle and pectoral injuries last season.

That explains why he was still on the market after each of the NFL’s 32 teams had opened training camp. Before Sunday’s training-camp practice at Saint Vincent College, Clark emphasized he is now healthy and “definitely” still the player he was before the 2023 knee injury.

“I mean, I got hurt, and that’s part of the game,” he said. “You play this game, things are going to happen. I was clean for so long, and you’ve got to take what comes with the game, the ups, the downs, and I feel like I bounced back good from that. And that’s in the history, in the past. Now it’s just keep moving forward, stacking days, taking care of my body and letting things happen how they happen.”

Clark impressed teammates by participating in Friday’s practice, just hours after he’d signed his contract at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side.

“That morning I did my workout, and (team personnel asked), ‘Can we get you out (to Saint Vincent)?’” Clark said. “And they’re probably thinking I just want to watch. But I’m like, ‘I’m going to go out there in the mix.’

“I know football. It’s just starting to put (a team’s unique) terminology to it. I’m going to be all right. I definitely pride myself on that, just knowing that I’m going to be ready and in shape and whatever it takes.”

By Sunday, Clark was taking regular reps as a second-team safety. According to Pro Football Focus data, Clark in 2024 averaged 28.9 snaps per game lined up at free safety, 22.7 at strong safety and 5.4 as the slot/nickel cornerback in addition to occasional deployment as an outside corner or blitzing from the edge.

Those ratios roughly mirror his usage in prior years with the Ravens. Tomlin would not yet commit to where he expects Clark to contribute among a safeties corps that lost former All Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick but has been deploying former All Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey at free safety during practice. Elliott remains more of an in-the-box starter, with another newcomer – Juan Thornhill – an option to play.

Tomlin said roles will be divvied up over the next six weeks before the regular season opens. But with Clark’s cerebral game already making an impression on his new team, expect he will be part of significant packages by the time the Steelers face the New York Jets in Week 1.

“What’s been really impressive is his ability to digest schematics in a short period of time and execute a defense,” Tomlin said. “I am not completely surprised by it because we have competed with him over the years, and I just know he has a reputation of a really solid professional. He’s displayed that in the short of period of time he’s been here.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)