Once Earl Thomas’ release from the Ravens was fleshed out and reported, it turned out that the future Hall of Famer’s fight with Chuck Clark in practice was the last straw in a pattern of misconduct.
And then when you start to hear how the rest of the Ravens roster sees Clark, the Baltimore move starts to make a lot more sense.
“The only thing I can say after interacting with Chuck [Clark] and talked to the guys around him is that he was kind of the last guy you wanna mix with, ”CBS Sports’ Evan Washburn told Sports Junkies on Wednesday. respect he has in the locker room. “
Peter King recently reported that Thomas was not well liked by his teammates. He was constantly late for training, was unprepared and made assignment errors because of it. Once Thomas engaged with Clark, few teammates came to his defense.
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Knowing what we’re doing about Clark now, the lack of support isn’t too surprising.
“[Clark] is the kind of guy that everyone from the defense, the younger side and maybe even the vets goes and is like, ‘Hey man, how does that work? How can I do this? ‘ Washburn said. “Like a legitimate defensive coordinator on the pitch. So that’s just one of those situations we’ve seen over the years in professional sport where you have an extremely talented player, but if you don’t fit into the team culture. and they’ll feel better without you, they’re going to make a decision that’s better for the group. “
The Ravens will now look to replace Thomas’ exit on the pitch with just a few weeks before Week 1 and no preseason games to test things. DeShon Elliott appears to be the starter in free safety, although the 23-year-old has only appeared six games in his professional career.
Despite the uncertainty with this position, it seems the Ravens prefer to roll the dice with Elliott or anyone other than Thomas. We’ll see if that hurts their defense in 2020, and there’s a chance it will. The Ravens seem convinced, however, that they are better off.
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Chuck Clark’s position in the Ravens’ locker room could have played a role in the release of Earl Thomas, which originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
