Wade;275719Yes, but what if one doesn't believe HaHa is the safety equivalent of Hawk.
I explicitly said I don't consider the quality the same.

IMO, if there is a comparison quality-wise, HaHa offers less than Hawk, but a bit more than George Teague.

IMO, if you are going to draft a safety in the first, you need to think he will be at least as good as Nick Collins (who wasn't drafted in the first, by the way).

And, by the way, Collins was not the Collins we're trying to replace in year one OR year two. He took a lot of bad angles, had a number of "communication issues".
Because of his speed, he was able to recover from some of them.

Dix does not have that speed.

Dix will improve the defense at safety right out of the box, no question.
So would about ten of the safeties in this draft.

If you buy a new $30,000 hybrid car, you're going to improve on the gas-guzzling clunker in your garage.

But if you spend $80,000 to buy that car, you're going to regret the other things you could have done with the extra $50,000.

We didn't spend 80,000 dollars for a 30,000 dollar car though we spent 30,000 for a 30,000 dollar car.

steveishere;275727We didn't spend 80,000 dollars for a 30,000 dollar car though we spent 30,000 for a 30,000 dollar car.

Poor analogy.
Personally, I think Wade is wrong about an Alabama player . . . again.

steveishere;275725So the only time you should take a S in round 1 is if he's a possible Hall of Fame calibre player?
We've got a bit of a problem around here it seems with fans lacking respect for just how good Collins was.
No as a prospect he wasn't that highly rated but as an actual player he was.
Stop using him as the bar for how good our S need to be.
There are probably not more than a couple players left in this entire draft who are going to end up being as good at their positions as Collins was at his.

The only thing that kept Collins from being considered the best S in the league was 2 all-time great S playing at the same time.

Great post. Collins developed into one of the very best Safeties in the NFL by the time he was injured. He was remarkable. You can wait decades before finding that range, speed and ball skills combination again.

Unless of course you mean to wait about 9 more hours to pick Behre!

I would love to hear more specific scenarios about what some would have preferred the Packers to do other than draft Ha Ha.
It sounds like Ted discussed some trades, but there's no guarantee anything worthwhile was even an option.
It may sound good in theory, but it's not enough to say "Ted should have traded down."
Perhaps he wanted to and it just didn't work out.
Or perhaps Ha Ha was truly the BPA on his board.
That would be my guess.
It seems to me any other players would have been basically equivalent.
Some maybe had higher ceilings, but had as many question marks, or more, than Ha Ha.


Ha Ha should be a solid safety who has the potential to be better.
It's not the most exciting pick ever, but how many later round picks really are?
The Manziel scenario is just silly to me.
I'm thankful people like that aren't running this team, that's for sure.

Here’s what they say about him over at nfl.com:


Hype exceeded his performance in Tuscaloosa, but Clinton-Dix offers starter-caliber instincts, range, coverage skills and tackling ability as a free safety. Should be a Day 1 starter.

A first round draft pick should be a day one starter. That’s why they make more than any other rookie and why the expectations should be high. Mike Mayock on the pick:


“That pick made a ton of sense for the Packers. Of all safeties in draft, this guy had the best range. He plays faster than his NFL Scouting Combine 40-yard dash time (4.58 seconds). He misses surprisingly few tackles, and as a center fielder he’s a natural. For a big guy, his movement skills are very natural.” — Mike Mayock

I actually got this off of LombardiAve

He has a few tweets inside the story too.

DoddPower;275731I would love to hear more specific scenarios about what some would have preferred the Packers to do other than draft Ha Ha.
It sounds like Ted discussed some trades, but there's no guarantee anything worthwhile was even an option.
It may sound good in theory, but it's not enough to say "Ted should have traded down."
Perhaps he wanted to and it just didn't work out.
Or perhaps Ha Ha was truly the BPA on his board.
That would be my guess.
It seems to me any other players would have been basically equivalent.
Some maybe had higher ceilings, but had as many question marks, or more, than Ha Ha.


Ha Ha should be a solid safety who has the potential to be better.
It's not the most exciting pick ever, but how many later round picks really are?
The Manziel scenario is just silly to me.
I'm thankful people like that aren't running this team, that's for sure.

I read somewhere that GB was on the phone with HCD for quite a while before their pick even came up.
I have no doubt that was their guy.

DoddPower;275731I would love to hear more specific scenarios about what some would have preferred the Packers to do other than draft Ha Ha.
It sounds like Ted discussed some trades, but there's no guarantee anything worthwhile was even an option.
It may sound good in theory, but it's not enough to say "Ted should have traded down."
Perhaps he wanted to and it just didn't work out.
Or perhaps Ha Ha was truly the BPA on his board.
That would be my guess. It seems to me any other players would have been basically equivalent.
Some maybe had higher ceilings, but had as many question marks, or more, than Ha Ha.


Ha Ha should be a solid safety who has the potential to be better.
It's not the most exciting pick ever, but how many later round picks really are?
The Manziel scenario is just silly to me.
I'm thankful people like that aren't running this team, that's for sure.

The bolded part is why I am comfortable with Ha-Ha and was worried about taking Pryor if both were available. Pryor has more upside but at the same time I can see him turning into a Brandon Merriweather who leads with his helmet and gets himself knocked out.

Mucky Tundra;275737The bolded part is why I am comfortable with Ha-Ha and was worried about taking Pryor if both were available. Pryor has more upside but at the same time I can see him turning into a Brandon Merriweather who leads with his helmet and gets himself knocked out.

I have zero faith that Pryor will be able to stay healthy in the NFL, especially if he played for the Packers.
I'm not disappointed about not getting him, at all.
Above all, a team needs its players to be available.
I seriously question how available Pryor will be, but anything can happen.

I know day after grades are just that, relatively meaningless, but they aren't made for nothing, without some measure of thoughtful review.
I haven't seen a grade less than B+. Anywhere.

Most reviews of the Clinton-Dix pick are very high.

Dont know why people are picking on this pick ... look at least year ... we got 'lucky' last year - we really needed a rb and was able to take the 2 best in the draft.
Of course we took a Oline in the 1st round errr Dline I forget so easily since there wasnt much of a splash from the guy ...

So on defense what is our biggest need? ... S ... would you of rather we waited to the 2nd or 3rd and picked up a lesser talented person? Or take the best on the board with a position of need.

Do you guys soon forget our big plays that we gave up and our S position hasnt been up to snuff since collins (granted injuries have come into play and I still think burnett is a better player then he was showed recently).

I still love the lacy pick and am glad we got him where we did.
Could you imagine our season last year without him? ...

Clinton - Need and best on the board.