Ha Ha Clinton-Dix a bright spot in Bears' lost season
With the exception of Allen Robinson and Khalil Mack - the two biggest investments thus far in the Ryan Pace-Matt Nagy Bears regime - perhaps no player was more valuable in Sunday's narrow victory over the New York Giants than Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
The highest-paid defensive player in NFL history and a top-15 earner among his peers around the league, Mack and A-Rob were instrumental with the decisive strip-sack and a gargantuan 6-131-1 receiving line, respectively.
Meantime, Clinton-Dix - the steadier of the Bears' two starting safeties all season but especially Sunday - made a team-high 7 tackles and leads all Bears non-linebackers with 58. He also trails only first-team all-pro Kyle Fuller with 2 interceptions and 4 pass breakups.
Granted, the ball production is hardly 2018 Fuller- or Eddie Jackson-esque, but Clinton-Dix's ball skills have shown up in huge moments. He catalyzed the Bears' victory at Washington in Week 3 with a pick-6 (read: the Bears' lone defensive touchdown in the first 12 games), and he delivered in crunchtime Sunday, breaking up Giants quarterback Daniel Jones' penultimate third-down throw of the game, after stopping Sterling Shepard short of the sticks on fourth down earlier in the fourth quarter with the Bears clinging to a lead.
Clinton-Dix, whose arrival in Chicago was humbling following the former Green Bay Packers first-rounder being dealt to Washington last fall.
It also was accompanied by the false perception of many that his tackling is subpar. He entered Week 12 with a missed tackle percentage of 6.5 percent, according to Pro Football Reference.
While not elite, that's 2 points better than he was last season and far superior to teammate Jackson (11.1), as well as Landon Collins (12.1) and Earl Thomas (11.8) - the pair resetting the safety market with contracts promising north of $30 million this spring.
Is that the kind of payday Clinton-Dix is positioning himself to land this off-season after playing on a one-year, $3 million prove-it deal with only $500,000 guaranteed?
That seems unlikely, but assuming he maintains his solid play, it'd be stunning if Clinton-Dix doesn't garner a marked raise on a multiyear pact. The question then becomes whether it would come from the Bears, who still could look to extend Jackson one year early if it's a deal that makes sense for both parties, and absolutely should engage Robinson in extension talks, in addition to their impending quarterback, tight end and offensive line decisions.
The caveat is that as well as Clinton-Dix has played on a contract not commensurate with his production, he's a natural free safety - like Jackson - whose presence ironically may be hurting Jackson in some ways. The Alabama reunion that seemed to make so much sense at the time has left the Bears without a thumper near the line who runs the alley like Adrian Amos.
Add in the fact that the Bears' Akiem Hicks-less defensive front isn't generating nearly the amount of pressure it did a year ago, and a natural playmaker like Jackson has struggled to capitalize the way he did in his 2018 first-team all-pro campaign.
Subsequently, we've seen him freelance at times, like he did in letting Golden Tate get behind him on the fourth-quarter touchdown Sunday, or play with less discipline, like he did in biting on play action in Los Angeles on the Bears' longest pass play allowed this season.
It's yet another oddity in this Bears season that few expected: The contract leverage of Clinton-Dix and Jackson may be heading in opposite directions.
How the Bears address the safety position this off-season will pale relative to what happens in their other backfield, but unlike so many of their performers who have failed to live up the billing in this lost season, Clinton-Dix's play has him poised to gain plenty.