As Chuck Clark waited, he watched and wondered. 

The safety, whom the Jets acquired in a 2023 trade with the Ravens to start on the back end of their defense, was lost for the season after tearing his ACL in a non-contact injury on the final play of the team’s organized team activity last spring. 

That left Clark to watch his new teammates finish the season ranked third in the league in total defense.

And it left him to wonder: Will there be room for me when I’m healthy? 

“In this game, it’s like, ‘What can you do for me now?’ ” Clark told The Post on Thursday after the Jets’ joint practice with the Washington Commanders. “I wondered, ‘How do I fit back in with this defense with the way they’ve been playing? They’ve got a lot of good players. What do they need me to do?’ ” 

But Clark, healthy now after a year of rehab and reflection, knows exactly what the Jets need from him. 

“I can bring experience,” Clark said. “I’ve seen a lot of ball and been a part of a lot of wins. So I have that experience, and I want to share that knowledge with these guys. I’m just looking to bring veteran leadership to the back end, just experience and play-making ability, being the glue that keeps us together.” 

Yes, the Jets defense was ranked third in the league last season. But impressive stats be damned, the end result was a 7-10 record and a 13th consecutive season without a playoff berth for the franchise. 

The Jets defense ranked fourth in the league in 2022, and the team finished 7-10 that year, too. Big deal. That and 20 bucks will get you a tallboy beer on game day at MetLife Stadium. 

The reality is that for all the elite young talent on the defensive side of the ball for the Jets, beginning with Quinnen Williams and including Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed, as well as Jermaine Johnson and Williams’ younger brother, Quincy, those players haven’t experienced winning. 

Clark came to the Jets after spending his first six seasons in the NFL with the Ravens, who unlike the Jets are a perennially winning franchise. 

In Clark’s six seasons in Baltimore, the Ravens were 62-34 in the regular season and had one losing season (8-9 in 2021), going to the playoffs four times. 

The Jets, in that same 2017-22 span, were 32-66 and never had a sniff of a playoff game. 

So, as good as the likes of Williams, Gardner, Reed, Johnson and the other talents on the defensive side of the ball are, they need to learn how to win. Because all they’ve experienced as pros is losing. 

“I think about that a lot, having been on a team and the excessive success that we had,” Clark said. “I’m going to show [my teammates] how we can go and get this done. We’re here to win. That’s what I’ve been about. That was the personality of the team where I came from.” 

Clark talked about how, during his rehab in the weight room, he used to say to the team assistant strength coach who worked with him every day: “I can’t wait to get back with the team because I want to show them how to win.” 

This is Clark’s calling in Jets green and white. 

Robert Saleh, who said Clark has “worked his tail off” to get back, has embraced Clark’s commitment to the team. 

“Last year during the season, he didn’t have to be here to rehab,” Saleh said, referring to the many players with season-ending injuries going home to rehab. “But he was here, staying connected to the team.” 

It frustrated Clark having to sit and watch as an injured player after six NFL seasons in which he was an iron man. 

He came to the Jets having played in 1,248 consecutive snaps dating from Week 16 of 2021. Before last season, Clark missed just two games in six years — one his rookie season and one in 2021 because of COVID-19. 

And suddenly, while pulling up to avoid hitting a teammate on that fateful final OTA play, 2023 was over for him. 

“It was different for me,” Clark said. “It was a complete 360 for me. I’ve been pretty healthy all my career, and in one offseason … boom, my complete season was out the window.” 

He got hurt on a Friday and didn’t get the ACL diagnosis until Monday. He said he was running around his house making cuts in an effort to prove he wasn’t hurt. He refused to believe he was seriously injured. 

But the diagnosis was the diagnosis. 

“That was a shock to hear the diagnosis,” he said. “I didn’t know I was hurt. You can see me on film. I ran off the field.” 

The second Monday in September, against the 49ers on the road, Clark will be running onto the field as a Jet in the season opener. 

Finally.