Look for Clinton Dix extension soon!

[Deekster37]

 There's no way we let him enter free agency so somewhere next year we extend let me know your thoughts! Also when I say soon I mean somewhere between now and next January!

[Greg C.]

I would not feel good about Clinton-Dix getting a new contract during this off-season. That would not only be an unwise move by the team in its own right, but it would also send a bad message to the rest of the team, considering that Clinton-Dix played poorly last year and quit trying in the final game. He did not look like a guy who was playing for a new contract. I have my doubts about whether he deserved to go to the Pro Bowl the previous year, but at the very least, he was a solid player who gave good effort. I think he needs to play almost an entire season of good football before being rewarded with a new contract. 

[MacReady]

Really gets old when people here use one bad season as an indication of a bad career or complete lack of talent or ability.  He just went from a pro bowl and second team all-pro to a bad season.  Clinton-Dix has the ability to be an all-pro safety.  Why wouldn't you re-sign him? 

This whole, "He quit in the last game" nonsense needs to stop, too.  It's one thing if you show no effort whatsoever when your team is in the playoff hunt, but we were eliminated.  Literally everybody here wanted us to tank at that point, but suddenly Clinton-Dix is a quitter because he didn't give 100% in a final meaningless game?  Hell, if I was in HaHa's position, I wouldn't even have stepped onto the field.  Considering how fluky ACL/MCL tears can be and how they can seemingly come out of nowhere on the simplest moves, if I was forced onto the field, I would have frickin crawled the whole game.  Clinton-Dix is 25 years old.  Something going wrong in that game could have made him a 26-year-old safety entering a contract year just after tearing his ACL.

But yeah.  He was a quitter.  Lol. 

When Clinton-Dix was put in a position to perform this past year, he did.  Except for that one whiff in the Falcons game and a few more where he was way too far back to even be a factor (was that by design in a year where our corners sucked?), Clinton-Dix performed.  We've just been talking about how important it is to be able to cover running backs.  Go find his coverage on Danny Woodhead.  You literally can't cover someone better than that.

http://www.packers.com/media-center/videos/Packers-S-Ha-Ha-Clinton-Dix-intercepts-Ravens-QB-Joe-Flacco/01dd015f-2b0b-4cdf-9d1c-6b135e126fd5

Basically, quit whining about Clinton-Dix.  Talented safeties don't come along often, and when they do, you keep them.  I don't get why so many people are so ready to give up on players when they have literally nobody to replace them.  And don't say Josh Jones.  Josh Jones can't play both safety positions simultaneously.  If you had a problem with Clinton-Dix last year, you can't use Jones as a replacement because Jones was twice as bad as Clinton-Dix. 
 

[MacReady]

Also, the armchair evaluations are pretty bad here.  One person says Clinton-Dix plays poorly and everybody flocks to it and accepts it like flies on poop. 

Clinton-Dix had a PFF grade (not the best, but better than 90% of people here are qualified to grade).  That grade was a 79.2.  That is .8 points away from an above average grade.

Let's look at some other free safety scores from around the league.  These are for all players listed as free safeties:

Harrison Smith - 97
Adrian Amos - 92
Lamarcus Joyner - 90.3
Glover Quinn - 89
Kevin Byard - 89
Earl Thomas - 87.6
Jordan Poyer - 87
Marcus Williams - 86.8
DJ Swearinger - 83.6
McCourty - 82.6
Weddle - 82.4
Tashaun Gipson - 81.4
RIcardo Allen - 81.4
Tre Boston - 81.4
Rodney McLeod - 79.3
Clinton-Dix - 79.2
Andre Hal - 78.5
George Iloka - 77.7
Malik Hooker - 77.3
Tyran Mathieu - 77.0
Byron Jones - 76.8
Reggie Nelson - 75.3
Chris Conte - 74.6
Colin Jones - 74.1
Mike Mitchell - 71.2
Darian Stewart - 70.3
Darian Thompson - 52.2
Marcus Maye - 48.9
Jimmie Ward - 46.9
Peppers - 45.5
Ron Parker - 40.1
Nate Allen - 40

That puts Clinton-Dix at exactly average.  He was the 16th best or the 16th worst free safety in the league in his worst year as a professional football player and people are afraid to re-sign him, yet people want to move on from him without a replacement and fully aware of how much worse it could get. 

 

[Pugger]

5 hours ago, Deekster37 said:

 There's no way we let him enter free agency so somewhere next year we extend let me know your thoughts! Also when I say soon I mean somewhere between now and next January!

It will depend upon how he plays this coming season.  I'm hoping he has a bounce back year.  

[Golfman]

So he is rated as the 16th best free safety. My thought process is that is the definition of average. It's not 'one bad year'! The guy clearly had an aversion to tackling. He absolutely avoided contact in open field on more than one occasion. Let's see what he does under Pettine, but I'm unimpressed with him so far. 

I will say if he could catch he'd be close to the top of the league in INT's. 

[MacReady]

Just now, Golfman said:

So he is rated as the 16th best free safety. My thought process is that is the definition of average. It's not 'one bad year'! The guy clearly had an aversion to tackling.

That is not remotely anywhere close to what I suggested.  What I suggested is that in the worst year of his career, he was still the 16th best safety in the league. 

iI'm not even going to waste my time with disproving this "aversion to tackling" BS.  He struggled as a tackler in his rookie year.  He has never once shown an unwillingness to tackle, and that's just an unwarranted and ridiculous lie. 

[Apex]

2 hours ago, HorizontoZenith said:

Really gets old when people here use one bad season as an indication of a bad career or complete lack of talent or ability.  He just went from a pro bowl and second team all-pro to a bad season.  Clinton-Dix has the ability to be an all-pro safety.  Why wouldn't you re-sign him? 

 

 

 

I couldn't agree more.  Davante Adams anyone?

[craig]

I'm not qualified to judge.  But I'd kinda hope that it is largely about the coaching, and that with a new sheriff that HaHa might prove to be a really good value on the contract you might sign him for this summer.  

As a Bucks fan, I pretty much assume any decision they make is probably dumb.  In baseball,I'm a Cubs fan; I so respect Cubs management that whenever they make a decision, I totally trust that it's a thoughtful and intelligent one.  With Gute and MM, I'm not as doubtful as with the Bucks, but not nearly as confident as with the Cubs.....  I'm hoping Gute will be able to make a lot of smart decisions and earn our trust.  

Re Ha Ha, this has to be both a scouting, scheme, and personality evaluation that I'm not equipped to make.  They need to make an evaluation, a good one. 

If you want to beat the salary cap, you sometimes want to sign a guy early, before he has a strong year.  If you sign him now, and he does have a much better season and thrives under a new coordinator, I think you have a chance to get a MUCH better deal than if you wait for a good season with Free Agency approaching.  If you wait for him to prove it with a good season, and he does so, then you're going to have to pay approximately free-agent price.  To get a bargain, now would be better.  But, if this year is his level, you'll get no bargain.

To me, this season it seemed his positioning was poor.  Wherever the first down line was or a receiver, he'd play far enough behind that he'd never get their in time to contest a first-down pass, he'd only close and arrive late after the fact.  Obviously that's just amateur view, but it just seemed he was always a step two late or a yard too late, always tackling a yard behind the marker instead of contesting and stopping in front of the marker. 

Was that HaHa, or Capers'/Perry's/Whitt's command?   MM and Gute and Perry and Whitt and Pettine should be able to evaluate that much, much better than I can.  Maybe they figure he can do much better if used differently; if Pettine gets in Perry's and Whitt's faces and tells them to use HaHa more aggressively and not to give away free first downs, maybe he'll look way better next year?  Smart management is needed to make smart decisions.    

 

[CWood21]

5 hours ago, HorizontoZenith said:

Also, the armchair evaluations are pretty bad here.  One person says Clinton-Dix plays poorly and everybody flocks to it and accepts it like flies on poop.

I mean, I don't need PFF or anyone else to tell me that HHCD had a bad year.  I don't care what you want to blame it on, we saw poor angle after poor angle this year and his tackling wasn't much better.  Coming off his 2016 season, expectations were HIGH on him and rightfully so.  But I'm not going to write him off either.

[MacReady]

Just now, CWood21 said:

I mean, I don't need PFF or anyone else to tell me that HHCD had a bad year.  I don't care what you want to blame it on, we saw poor angle after poor angle this year and his tackling wasn't much better.  Coming off his 2016 season, expectations were HIGH on him and rightfully so.  But I'm not going to write him off either.

Yeah, but how much of that was Clinton-Dix, and how much of it was scheme and crap pass rush and mostly crap corner play?  I'm not saying he had a good year.  I'm saying even his worst year wasn't as bad as half the other safeties in the league.  If it wasn't half as bad as the other safeties in the league, we'd better be sure we get an upgrade before we lose him. 

[CWood21]

Just now, HorizontoZenith said:

Yeah, but how much of that was Clinton-Dix, and how much of it was scheme and crap pass rush and mostly crap corner play?  I'm not saying he had a good year.  I'm saying even his worst year wasn't as bad as half the other safeties in the league.  If it wasn't half as bad as the other safeties in the league, we'd better be sure we get an upgrade before we lose him. 

I mean, that is the million dollar question.  Literally.  And I think that's why people are apprehensive about extending him until they have a better idea of what his play was a byproduct of.  Was it the poor play around him, was it the scheme, or was it himself?  Right now, the Packers aren't going to be willing to commit the $8M+ that his agent is probably wanting to see.  Right now, there's no real motivation for the Packers to sign him unless it's a team friendly deal and right now his agent has no motivation to have his client sign a contract that's probably buying low.

[Norm]

6 hours ago, HorizontoZenith said:

Also, the armchair evaluations are pretty bad here.  One person says Clinton-Dix plays poorly and everybody flocks to it and accepts it like flies on poop. 

Clinton-Dix had a PFF grade (not the best, but better than 90% of people here are qualified to grade).  That grade was a 79.2.  That is .8 points away from an above average grade.

Let's look at some other free safety scores from around the league.  These are for all players listed as free safeties:

Harrison Smith - 97
Adrian Amos - 92
Lamarcus Joyner - 90.3
Glover Quinn - 89
Kevin Byard - 89
Earl Thomas - 87.6
Jordan Poyer - 87
Marcus Williams - 86.8
DJ Swearinger - 83.6
McCourty - 82.6
Weddle - 82.4
Tashaun Gipson - 81.4
RIcardo Allen - 81.4
Tre Boston - 81.4
Rodney McLeod - 79.3
Clinton-Dix - 79.2
Andre Hal - 78.5
George Iloka - 77.7
Malik Hooker - 77.3
Tyran Mathieu - 77.0
Byron Jones - 76.8
Reggie Nelson - 75.3
Chris Conte - 74.6
Colin Jones - 74.1
Mike Mitchell - 71.2
Darian Stewart - 70.3
Darian Thompson - 52.2
Marcus Maye - 48.9
Jimmie Ward - 46.9
Peppers - 45.5
Ron Parker - 40.1
Nate Allen - 40

That puts Clinton-Dix at exactly average.  He was the 16th best or the 16th worst free safety in the league in his worst year as a professional football player and people are afraid to re-sign him, yet people want to move on from him without a replacement and fully aware of how much worse it could get. 

 

I'm blocking you for using PFF.

[MacReady]

Just now, NormSizedMidget said:

I'm blocking you for using PFF.

Good.  I never liked you anyway. 

[Norm]

39 minutes ago, HorizontoZenith said:

Yeah, but how much of that was Clinton-Dix, and how much of it was scheme and crap pass rush and mostly crap corner play?  I'm not saying he had a good year.  I'm saying even his worst year wasn't as bad as half the other safeties in the league.  If it wasn't half as bad as the other safeties in the league, we'd better be sure we get an upgrade before we lose him. 

I don't think the dude was there mentally. That's my feel