Green Bay Packers free safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is the cornerstone to build the defense around.
Entering the 2016 season, Pro Football Focus ranked the Packers secondary as the fifth best in the league. The Packers group composed of cornerbacks Sam Shields, Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, and safeties Clinton-Dix and Morgan Burnett trailed only the Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks. But an injury-riddled campaign left everyone in search of answers. Except at safety where 21 held his own against the best in the world.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix: The Cornerstone to Build Around
The Alabama Crimson Tide alum has improved with each passing year and is quietly emerging as one of the elite free safeties in the National Football League. Clinton-Dix is the quintessential free safety: great tackler, versatile, and intelligent.
The Orlando, FL native has registered between 80 and 100 combined tackles including at least 60 solo tackles each year. His tackling goes even deeper than just mere numbers. According to Pro Football Focus, the Packers safety “missed just two tackles all year, both in the passing game and racked up 40 tackles, four stops and four assists in the passing game. He also accrued 36 tackles, 11 stops, and nine assists in run defense.”
Clinton Dix also has 4.5 career sacks on his resume, which shows his versatility and athleticism. The 25-year-old safety can do it all from a single high safety coverage to covering wide receivers to stopping the run as an eighth man in the box. And, he’s only getting better.
But, his greatest attribute, thus far, is that he takes the ball away from opposing offenses. Each season, Clinton-Dix has raised his interception total, going from one as a rookie, two a year later and five last season, which ranked second among safeties. Last season, the former Crimson Tide player allowed “a passer rating of just 61.2 when he was the primary defender in coverage, which ranked eighth in the league,” according to PFF.
Clinton-Dix solidified his career with a Pro Bowl season as well as a Second Team All-Pro nomination. However, his performance was overshadowed and outdone by the collective failures of the defense, especially with respect to defending the pass. Last season, the Packers ranked 31st in passing defense, giving up whopping 269 passing yards per game. Clinton-Dix was the only bright spot on a secondary that routinely got scorched.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix: The Man
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Clinton Dix was not always the best athlete on the football field.
It was not until he switched school and position (from running back to safety) that Clinton-Dix blossomed on the field, and entertained the idea of playing professionally.
Growing up a black man, Clinton-Dix saw family and friends live in fear of the police. However, he thought to himself that is not the way it is supposed to be. He sought a career in law enforcement to show future generations that the police and justice system are not their enemies.
“Growing up where I’m from, some people are afraid of cops. They don’t really like cops. And what a lot of people don’t realize is, they’re really not the bad guys. They’re really on our side, they’re really trying to help us out. And sometimes we don’t understand that,” said Clinton-Dix to Jason Wilde for ESPN.com.
The young man enrolled in the Criminal Studies program at the University of Alabama. In 2014, he declared for the NFL draft despite missing 26 credit hours.
But he had made a promise to his mother and Nick Saban that he would come back to finish his degree. This offseason, he enrolled back at the University of Alabama to hold his part of the bargain. He is currently “serving under Judge Don Zuidmulder,” in “Brown County Circuit in Wisconsin for college credit,” according to Mike Chiari for Bleacher Report.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is not only a great football player. He is a great man with a bright future ahead of him. Maybe he will be a judge or a lawyer, some day, protecting at risk youth in the inner cities.
