Green Bay Packers 2015 Impact Meter: FS Ha Ha Clinton-Dix

2014 first-round pick Ha Ha Clinton Dix helped take the Green Bay Packers' safety group from a so-so unit in 2013 to a solid one last season and is poised to make a big impact on the team's defense in 2015. 

Clinton-Dix wasn't the starting free safety to open Green Bay's 2014 season, but after six games of earning snaps behind defensive back Micah Hyde, who moved to safety last season, he earned the starting job and never looked back.

He continued to improve throughout the season, and having more experience in and knowledge of Green Bay's defensive scheme should allow him to grow even more in 2015. 

2014 Season in Review

Games Played	Starts	Comb Tackles	Tot Tackles	Sacks	INTs	PD
16	10	92	65	1	1	6

Through the first six games of the 2014 season, Clinton-Dix was playing about half or a little more than half of the Packers' defensive snaps. In Weeks 1 through 6, the safety played 292 of 436 defensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus, or 67 percent. 

After taking over for Hyde as the starting free safety in Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers, however, Clinton-Dix would go on to play nearly 100 percent of the defensive snaps: 796 of 807. 

As he earned more opportunities to be on the field, Clinton-Dix continued to make the most of them. In his first six games, he had 22 total tackles, averaging 3.7 tackles per game. After he became the starter, he amassed 43 total tackles, averaging 4.3 per game. 

Clinton-Dix did have his first career interception, his only one of the regular season, in Week 3 against the Detroit Lions. It was a display of his playmaking ability; after Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford overthrew a target, former Packers cornerback Davon House tipped the ball, and Clinton-Dix lunged to pull it in. 

Though the play was notable for being Clinton-Dix's first interception in the pros, it also held more significance for the team as a whole: It was the first time in 22 games that a Packers safety had intercepted a ball. An infamous streak like that is one of the reasons general manager Ted Thompson felt compelled to draft a safety, Green Bay's greatest need entering the draft, in the first round in 2014. 

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Clinton-Dix showed early on that the decision was paying off. 

Defensive coordinator Dom Capers was certainly pleased. 

"I think he has the ability to go out and make plays for us," Capers, who emphasizes to players they should take advantage of tips and overthrown passes, said in September 2014, per Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. 

"I think it's vision, and just reacting to the ball and focusing on the football and being able to go up and come down with it," Capers added. 

Clinton-Dix continued to demonstrate that vision through the rest of the season. He would finish the regular season with 65 total tackles, a sack, the interception and six passes defensed. His 15 missed tackles, by Pro Football Focus' count, were high, but he displayed enough prowess on other tackles to almost make up for them. 

It was in the postseason, however, when Clinton-Dix really came on. During the NFC Championship Game against the Seattle Seahawks, Clinton-Dix smelled blood in the water, intercepting Russell Wilson twice and having three passes defensed. 

His effort could have sent the Packers straight to the Super Bowl, but we all know the events that colluded to prevent that from happening—including Clinton-Dix's own inability to break up the pass Luke Willson caught for a two-point conversion. Surely it's a reminder to the 2014 rookie that there's always room to improve. 

2015 Preview

Morry Gash/Associated Press

Speaking of improving, look forward to a less up-and-down season from Clinton-Dix in 2015 as the second-year player finds his stride with the playbook and on the field. 

He's looked good so far in training camp, including against the run in a drill on Monday, as Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. 

Pro Football Focus graded Clinton-Dix as No. 65 out of 87 safeties in run defense in 2014. While defending the run will largely be the scope of Morgan Burnett's and Sean Richardson's roles, making himself a more complete safety overall can do nothing but improve Clinton-Dix's play.

To continue improving in his second year, he can also decrease those missed tackles. His 15 were the eighth most in the league among safeties, per Pro Football Focus. Unfortunately, they weren't all relegated to the first half of the season, and between Weeks 13 and 15 Clinton-Dix had seven total missed tackles, which any defensive coordinator will tell you is too many. 

On the whole, however, Clinton-Dix's strengths far outweigh his weaknesses. He is capable of producing many more interceptions in 2015, even while staying true to his assignments—Capers does not appreciate freelancing. 

But Clinton-Dix had serious expectations placed on him in his rookie season, even with Hyde as a safety net to start early. It cannot be said enough how well he performed in spite of all odds and what a core player he will prove to be for this defense in the future. 

Projected 2015 Impact Meter: High