Kenny Clark spent nine seasons in Green Bay. Rashan Gary spent seven. On Sunday night both will walk into Lambeau Field wearing visiting colors, as members of a Dallas Cowboys defense that sits near the bottom of the NFL in almost every major category.
Clark came to Dallas before the 2025 season as part of the trade that sent Micah Parsons to the Packers. The Cowboys added Gary in March for a 2027 fourth-round pick, the team's website reported. The two were Green Bay teammates for six seasons.
"I was there nine years. That's one of my homes," Clark said Wednesday, according to DallasCowboys.com. "I got drafted there at 20 years old, became a man there."
Gary kept the trip in narrower terms. "Good to go back to Green Bay, but it's just another opponent, another team that's in the way of where we're trying to go," he said.
A familiar voice on the staff
The reunion reaches the coaching staff as well. Mike Pettine, Green Bay's defensive coordinator from 2018 to 2020 and a former Cleveland Browns head coach, joined Dallas this week as a senior defensive assistant working under first-year coordinator Christian Parker. Pettine coached Clark for three seasons and was on the Packers staff when they took Gary with the No. 12 pick in 2019.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer said Pettine reported Wednesday morning.
Clark said Pettine will "pressure guys, get us in different fronts" and disguise coverages. Gary called him "a front seven master."
The need is visible in the numbers. Entering Week 6, Dallas ranked 31st in total defense at 395.4 yards allowed per game, last against the run at 168.4 yards per game and last on third down at a 52.6% conversion rate, CBS Sports reported.
Opponents carried a league-high 120.5 passer rating against the Cowboys, who are the only NFL team without an interception and have gone three straight games without a takeaway.
Defensive players met without coaches after last week's 24-16 home loss to previously winless Tampa Bay, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown said. Schottenheimer welcomed it on Wednesday. "The best teams I've ever been around are led by the locker room," he said, per Sports Illustrated's Cowboys site.
Porter in, Parsons out
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr., acquired in a recent trade with Pittsburgh, missed the Tampa Bay game after falling ill that day. He told CBS Sports he expects to start and carry a full workload Sunday. "That's what I'm shooting for, and that's what they're shooting for as well," he said.
