From the moment the Chicago Bears signed Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, so many critics came out of the woodwork to bash him. Most of them sour Green Bay Packers fans. They feel the former 1st round pick was a bust who never took the entirety of his job seriously as a safety. He was a good ballhawk only focused on trying to create turnovers. When it came to playing the run and having to tackle guys, he was woefully inadequate.
Is that entirely fair? Clinton-Dix had over 100 tackles in each of his first two seasons. Between the Packers and Washington Redskins last year, he piled up 93. It’s hard to imagine those numbers would be so high if he were such an unwilling tackler. For example, Deion Sanders? He was a Hall of Famer and all-time great cover corner. He was also an awful tackler. Even teammate admitted that he had a habit of making a “business decision” when faced with trying to make a one-on-one tackle attempt.
He averaged 39 tackles per season for his career. By contrast Kyle Fuller has averaged 61 over the four years he’s played. So it’s fair to say Clinton-Dix is at least a willing tackler. Is he that bad though? Well according to Pro Football Focus, the safety ranked 17th in tackling efficiency at his position in 2018. That may sound bad until one realizes it was only two spots below celebrated New York Jets star Jamal Adams and 13 spots above the man who replaced him in Washington, Landon Collins.
Oh and Adrian Amos ranked 28th.
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Bears DB coach is firmly behind Ha Ha Clinton-Dix
One man who is perplexed by the criticisms of Clinton-Dix is his defensive backs coach, Deshea Townsend. This man knows a thing or two about playing physical in the NFL. He was part of some tough Pittsburgh Steelers defenses in the 2000s that won two Super Bowls. So when he threw his weight behind Clinton-Dix to Pro Football Weekly, it meant something.
“The one thing I’ll say about the contact stuff is, you always wonder who wrote it and did they have a chance to run into him and tackle him? That’s always the thing you think about. He is … glad to have him here. I’m sure no DB nowadays is a killer. Your job is to get the man down, no matter how you do it. That issue hasn’t shown. How he’s come here and been a pro is what we expected. We all have things that we need to work on. And I guess those things people are saying, he has. He’s come in in the preseason and training camp and he’s done everything we’ve asked.”
Put it this way. Clinton-Dix may not be “great” at tackling, but he’s good enough. The Bears signed him because he’s a good football player with experience who might actually give them a bit more playmaking potential on the back end. Amos may have gotten off to the better start in the opener. That doesn’t mean the decision to sign Clinton-Dix was a bad one. The Bears trust his skill and the numbers back that up.
