{"id":663814,"date":"2026-05-25T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663814\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:09:16","slug":"going-to-age-very-poorly-former-chiefs-ol-defends-caitlin-clark-as-fever-star-faces-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663814\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Going to Age Very Poorly\u2019 — Former Chiefs OL Defends Caitlin Clark As Fever Star Faces Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark cannot shoot a jumper these days without somebody picking it apart. When you\u2019re the face of the WNBA, there\u2019s a ton of scrutiny that comes with that.<\/p>\n

From criticism about her recent back injury to how her game is developing in her third WNBA season, there\u2019s always something. But not everyone\u2019s buying the panic. Geoff Schwartz, a former NFL offensive linemen turned analyst, defended Clark amid the recent wave of criticism.<\/p>\n

Geoff Schwartz Defends Caitlin Clark Amid Latest Wave of Criticism<\/p>\n

Schwartz, who suited up for the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, and New York Giants throughout his NFL career, recently fired back at Clark\u2019s doubters.<\/p>\n

Schwartz candidly defended Clark on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSaying Clark hasn\u2019t improved her game is going to age very poorly. Going left now. Better on defense. Passes are crisp. 3s are going in now,\u201d he posted on X. He shared this take alongside a clip breaking down the Indiana Fever\u2019s read-and-react offense, the same system Clark ran at Iowa.<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s stats back up Schwartz\u2019s take, as she is averaging 23.8 points, a league-high 9.0 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game through five contests. She\u2019s the only player in the WNBA with two 20-point, 10-assist outings this season. On Friday against the Golden State Valkyries, she returned from a one-game absence and dropped 22 points and 9 assists in a 90-82 win, shooting 7-of-15 from the field and 4-of-9 from deep.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t new territory for Schwartz. The former Chiefs guard has been in Clark\u2019s corner for a while.<\/p>\n

Back in July 2025, he joined Jason McIntyre on \u201cThe Herd\u201d to defend Clark<\/a> against early criticism and to discuss whether she has the capability to lead Indy to a championship amid her health scares. His argument leaned on her passing and the gravity she creates.<\/p>\n

Schwartz has been a long-time vocal supporter of Clark, defending her from time to time against critics who trash her play just for online engagement.<\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s win, Clark also addressed the noise around her game. She\u2019d been a late scratch on Wednesday, a mere 100 minutes before the tipoff, after not appearing on the injury report prior to that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing back from injury is a real mental challenge,\u201d she explained. \u201cI think everybody expects me to be like this (pointing up). It\u2019s not. It\u2019s like this (pointing up and down).<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the best players in the world, and if I don\u2019t feel 100% confident in my body in Game 5 of the year, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s really worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark cannot shoot a jumper these days without somebody picking it apart. When you\u2019re the face of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-663814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}