6 free-agent safeties the Commanders could sign in 2024

Commanders could sign Chuck Clark

Chuck Clark was a huge success story. The sixth-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2017 steadily worked his way up the ranks of the talented Baltimore Ravens defense to become one of their most reliable players by 2022. After they added explosive first-rounder Kyle Hamilton, he became expendable and was traded to the New York Jets during the 2023 offseason.

Then Clark, who had missed just two games in six seasons in the league, blew out his ACL and missed the entire season. Early reports of his recovery were promising, but I have not seen updates for months.

Clark is still only 28 years old. If he can show his knee is back to full strength, he could be a classic example of a low-cost player who could yield big dividends.

As with Jordan Whitehead, Clark is not as explosive or versatile as the elite players on this list. If healthy, he can provide a steady, veteran presence that would make for a seamless transition from Kamren Curl at a fraction of the price that any of the bigger names would cost.

Some of these players - especially Antoine Winfield Jr. and Xavier McKinney - could end up being franchised and consequently removed from the market. There is a chance that the Commanders could do the same with Curl. But I don’t think that is likely as of now.

Though the current landscape will change, there are a lot of potential replacements for Curl, both at the high and low ends of the salary spectrum available in 2024.