When Bud Clark was down on the field in Tennessee, being tended to after he had broken his ankle, he assured a questioning Mike Macdonald, “Hell yeah, coach, we gravy.”

We’re not hip to all the lingo, but sounds like he meant it will be OK.

It was apropos that he used that word because Clark was supposed to be the gravy on the Seattle defense this season — the extra sauce to give Macdonald’s unit another element of flexibility and confuse offenses even more. So losing him for the season is a really unfortunate blow to that plan.

Now the question becomes: How does Macdonald replace Clark? Where does he find some more gravy?

First of all, let’s all remember that Clark was still learning the defense and Ty Okada was not relinquishing the starting job he had elevated to after Coby Bryant left.

Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon, Josh Jobe and Nick Emmanwori round out the top five — with D’Anthony Bell playing big nickel until E-Man returns.

The Hawks also are trying to figure out who will be the third corner.

Nehemiah Pritchett and Noah Igbinoghene have been running with the second defense all preseason. Iggy seems the better player to us, but it also could depend on where they want the third corner to play. If they still want to keep Spoon in the slot, Pritchett might be the choice over Iggy.

But there are two wild cards in that mix as well. Trevon Diggs is still getting into football condition and has to learn the defense, so he might land on the practice squad to start the season. But once he gets ramped up, he could be an option.

Later in the season, Terrion Arnold might become eligible. Assuming he is signed before the season, he figures to start out on the exempt list and miss at least the first four games. Even if he comes off in October, he would require practice time to ramp up on the field. So midseason seems to be the earliest he might contribute. And it could be much later or not at all, depending on how his criminal case plays out.

That brings us back to replacing Clark. Who else can be the versatile guy who could do what Clark eventually was going to do?

A.J. Finley seems the obvious next guy up; he has been playing ahead of Rodney Thomas II, who apparently has a broken hand. But if Macdonald thinks Iggy offers enough versatility, perhaps they keep five corners (third-rounder Julian Neal will be on the roster, but he has missed basically all of camp) instead of five safeties.

What about Milroe?

Jalen Milroe has not looked good this preseason. His performance against Tennessee (two picks and a fourth-down sack) showed a real lack of development, leading some to wonder whether it might be time to cut the 2025 third-rounder.

The coaches have to be disappointed, but it seems pretty unlikely they will cut Milroe. They probably want to give him one more year to develop. Also, he and Arnold are good friends, and Macdonald and John Schneider might prefer to keep Milroe around to help the young corner fit in with this Super Bowl contender.

The coaches surely were hoping Milroe would take enough of a step to give them confidence he could step into the QB2 role next year. But it’s pretty clear that the Hawks will need to re-sign Drew Lock after this season.

Lock played very well against Tennessee’s starting defense, leading Seattle to 16 points. Lock is making $2.25 million in 2026 — and probably would need a boost to $5 million, based on the backup QB market. The Hawks can afford that.

Milroe, meanwhile, should have one more chance to take a big step forward in 2027.