OK, but again, we're talking about a 25 year old who, whether *you* happen to agree or not, is considered at the top of the game in his position and we traded him for a 4th round pick, while Golden Tate, who is 30 goes for a third-round pick. Come on, it's a BAD trade.
I guess I’m not sure who considers him top at his position. Here’s a local article:
Going to the Pro Bowl after the 2016 season might have been the worst thing to happen for Ha Ha Clinton-Dix’s football career.
One of the great mysteries of the 2017 and ’18 Green Bay Packers is what happened with Clinton-Dix. He went from the verge of stardom to an underperforming, discontented player the Packers had no qualms trading to Washington this week for a fourth-round draft pick.
At age 25, Clinlton-Dix should have be hitting his peak as an NFL safety, yet he has regressed to the point where the Packers considered the former first-round draft pick part of the problem, not part of the solution, to their defensive issues.
And much of it traces back to Clinton-Dix’s Pro Bowl two years ago. He came away from that honor thinking he was a great player entitled to a huge contract. His work ethic and attention to detail suffered, and his quest to make big plays prevailed at the expense of doing his job.
Anyone who has watched the Packers regularly the last 1½ years has witnessed his incredibly uneven play. Though he intercepted six passes going back to 2017, he also gave up far too many plays by gambling in coverage and missing tackles as the last line of defense.
We’ll have to see how Clinton-Dix’s career goes from here. Maybe this will be the jolt he needed to get back on track and make the Packers regret the deal. But based on what we know to date, Brian Gutekunst, the team’s general manager, did well to get a fourth-round draft pick for him.
“He thought he was good enough that he didn’t have to study as much as a rookie (does),” a team source said of Clinton-Dix’s mindset the last two seasons. “He’s guessing (in pass coverage). He’s thinking that’s how you get paid.”
The Clinton-Dix trade this week brings to mind the Packers’ release of guard Josh Sitton just before the start of the 2016 season. Like Sitton's, Clinton-Dix’s play had declined. Like Sitton, he felt deserving of a lucrative contract extension but was rebuffed by the team. And like Sitton, his indignation carried over to the locker room, where he groused to teammates about not being rewarded with a new deal.
NFL teams don’t like unhappy veterans influencing ascending young players, especially if that veteran isn’t a star. So first with Sitton and now Clinton-Dix, the Packers very suddenly parted ways. They never missed Sitton. We’ll see in the second half of this season whether the same is true with Clinton-Dix.
At first blush, it’s hard to see why Clinton-Dix thought he was in line to become one of the highest-paid safeties in the league, which sources said he had in fact told teammates. He was on track for that kind of deal in ’16, which was his third season in the league. But after the drop-off in his play in 2017 the Packers would have been crazy to pay him big. This season has only confirmed their decision.
But it’s probably worth remembering Clinton-Dix’s football background on this point.
