Ha Ha Clinton-Dix has enjoyed quite the career as a safety. He was the top player at the position coming out of high school and all he did during his time at Alabama was win a pair of national championships and come out early as the top safety prospect in the 2014 NFL Draft.
While he won't be the No. 1 overall pick in May, he very likely will be the first safety taken. He could be selected at a higher position than many think based on who is picking in the top 15 this year.
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah tweeted Wednesday that he would be surprised if Clinton-Dix makes it past the Rams at No. 13 overall. Jeremiah is hearing a lot of chatter among league executives about the Crimson Tide safety and thinks he's right in that 10-15 range for a team to pick him.
"It's tough to find playmaking safeties," Jeremiah added.
Clinton-Dix is fellow analyst Mike Mayock's top-rated safety in the draft, just ahead of Louisville's Calvin Pryor. Jeremiah has little separation between the two as well, but reverses the positional order in his latest list of top 50 prospects.
For teams like the Rams, though, Clinton-Dix has a slight edge in coverage skills that might give him the nod when the time comes to turn in the card. That is, if he even makes it down to the team at No. 13 overall.
"I was at his pro day, and there were some defensive back coaches that would give anything to have him," Mayock said earlier this week about Clinton-Dix.
In the latest NFL.com mock drafts, there's a growing consensus that Clinton-Dix will end up off the board to the Rams with their second first-round pick, but at least two mocks have the Alabama defender going to the Lions at No. 10 overall. Detroit is certainly looking to shore up its secondary and joins Minnesota, Chicago and Dallas as clubs that likely have an eye on drafting one of the two safeties.
The Lions are keeping their options open. Several think they could fill a need at cornerback, possibly with Oklahoma State's Justin Gilbert, before looking for safety help. The team has brought in Clinton-Dix for a standard pre-draft visit and also hosted possible second-round pick Deone Bucannon out of Washington State.
The Rams have plenty of ammunition if they want to move around a bit in the first round to ensure they can get Clinton-Dix if he's the guy Jeff Fisher wants for his defense. In addition to picking at No. 13, the team has not hid the fact that they could be open to trading the second pick in the draft and moving back a little.
Either way, the bottom line is that Clinton-Dix will have several suitors come draft day, and he probably won't have to wait in the green room for too long before hearing his name being called by the commissioner.
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