Friday, May 09, 2014

2014 NFL Draft: Packers Select Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the 1st Round

With the necessary departure of former starter M.D. Jennings a few weeks ago, the Packers selected Alabama FS Ha Ha Clinton-Dix with the 21st overall pick in the May 2014 NFL draft. It was expected that Clinton-Dix would be gone by that point, but the Jets chose Calvin Pryor (more of a strong safety) at No. 18 overall and let the "most pure free safety in the draft" fall into the Packers' lap.

I thought teams might target safeties earlier this year, but instead they went with quantity. In total four safeties were selected in the 1st round. I thought at first that the Saints were trading up to No. 20 to grab Clinton-Dix before the Packers could, but instead the Saints went for a wide receiver.

The coaches were raving about him after the selection, but that's to be expected. Even if turns out to be another Morgan Burnett, he's still an upgrade over Jennings and allows them to use Micah Hyde in a backup safety/slot corner role, which he might be better suited for.

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