“As I get my chance to come up and make those big hits, it will happen. My time will come,” Packers free safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix said. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Green Bay — Word travels fast. Standing at his locker, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix hardly blinks when N.Y. Jets coach Rex Ryan's one-liner is repeated.

At No. 18 overall, the Jets had their pick of Clinton-Dix or Calvin Pryor.

"I took the guy who will knock your face in," Ryan said on a conference call.

As in Pryor. As in not Clinton-Dix. No laughing from Ha Ha here. The Green Bay Packers safety's face turned stern, his words direct.

"I'm not afraid to do that at all," Clinton-Dix said. "And you're going to continue to see that out of me. If that's what they thought, hey, that's on him. I'm going to show him."

He'll get his chance Sunday with Ryan front and center.

Clinton-Dix was unpolished, even sloppy at times in the Packers' season-opening loss at Seattle — but he also showed snapshots of being precisely what this position has lacked the last two seasons.

Snapshots of playmaking. He sacked Russell Wilson. He nearly had an interception. He recovered a fumble. And, yes, he'll lower his right shoulder, too. Week 1 was a friendly reminder that using a rookie safety for 40 snaps carries risk disclaimer.

In need of a true X-factor deep, odds are the Packers ride this roller coaster.

When Ryan's comments are brought up again, after the cameras depart, Clinton-Dix shakes his head and pauses.

"It is what it is," he said. "I can't take anything away from Pryor — that's my boy. He's a hell of a hitter. He does his thing. It was the same thing in college. He had the ability to roam around. I had to play in a scheme."

So doesn't he wish he could fly around?

Clinton-Dix's expression tells you to slow down with that logic.

"Oh, it's going to happen," Clinton-Dix assured. "I do it now. I fly around. On the sack I had, I was freelancing. That just goes to show, it can happen."

This was the crux of the Clinton-Dix/Pryor debate back in May. One safety (Pryor) had the license to roam, to pinball throughout Louisville's defense. One (Clinton-Dix) did not.

On Wednesday, Clinton-Dix said Green Bay's defense was the "same exact scheme" he had at Alabama. Players must buy in. You make plays within the framework of the X's and O's, of defensive backs playing off each other. Not as a rogue headhunter.

Yet in Seattle, Clinton-Dix was around the ball.

In Cover 2 late in the first half, he said he had a feeling the quarterback would go deep. Test him. As Clinton-Dix explains, Wilson thought the safety would shade toward the second receiver in running up the seam. Only, Clinton-Dix read Wilson's eyes and broke on the long ball along the boundary.

In other words, it was the kind of play rarely seen out of M.D. Jennings, Jerron McMillian and even Morgan Burnett.

Clinton-Dix dropped the pick, but he was at least in position for a pick.

"This system is set up for certain people to make certain plays at certain times," Clinton-Dix said. "When your time is called, your time is called."

Rotating with Micah Hyde, Clinton-Dix played 40 of 65 snaps. In dime, both were on the field. That number will likely grow as the season progresses because, plainly, this is a defense in need of turnovers.

After averaging 28.3 interceptions and 7.3 forced fumbles in Dom Capers' first three seasons as defensive coordinator — seeing Nick Collins' career end and Charles Woodson's career fade — Green Bay averaged 14.5 and three the last two seasons.

Through a pick-less 2013 season, safeties cited the virtue of patience. Clinton-Dix does, too. Position coach Darren Perry doesn't want greediness polluting his position. But physicality and instincts sure are welcome. OK, so Clinton-Dix missed tackles. There was also no tentativeness dragging him down in the opener.

"Coaches know I'm not afraid," Clinton-Dix said.

"If they see that, they're fine with that. As long as they see me like the missed tackle I had on Marshawn Lynch in the backfield — not scared, right place at the right time, shooting for the far leg — you just have to bring him down."

No, Clinton-Dix never knocked out players in back-to-back-to-back games like Pryor last fall. He is, unlike the starter in 2013, decisive. He feels no limitations mentally. Clinton-Dix said he knows the playbook. The defensive backs notice, too.

"He's a playmaker," Burnett said. "He can make plays."

Added Casey Hayward, "They got him in the first round for a reason. He can cover. He can hit. He's learning every day."

Ryan gets defensive when Pryor's coverage skills are questioned, saying Pryor "can do it all." Run. Cover. And, yes, make you think twice about that crossing route. To him, Pryor is no box safety.

"He's an overall safety that's going to be a force for years and years," Ryan said. "He is a hitter and that will be recognized early."

Who knows if the Packers would have even taken Pryor. General manager Ted Thompson said after the first round that he's "not a big fan anymore of those blowup guys" at safety.

Green Bay did need to liven up a rather bland, Collins-less position.

Clinton-Dix made it clear Wednesday he was not pleased with his performance. The missed tackles must be eliminated. On the 33-yard touchdown pass to Ricardo Lockette, Clinton-Dix says he should have collected himself with "a few more steps" before diving at the receiver's legs.

Against the Jets' new ground-and-pound duo of Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson, tackling across the defense must improve. One is a Lynch Lite; the other once pulled a 4.24 in the 40.

On Sunday, Clinton-Dix gets the chance to prove Ryan wrong (or right).

Clinton-Dix and Pryor have been linked together since they were highly recruited Florida preps, 300 miles apart. At the NFL scouting combine, Clinton-Dix raved about Pryor's lights-out hitting ability and did again Wednesday, saying "he's not afraid to stick his nose in there."

He just doesn't like the assumption in Ryan's comments that he wouldn't knock a face in himself.

Clinton-Dix sets the record straight. He does characterize himself as a hard hitter.

"No doubt," he said. "And you're going to see it week in and week out. As I get my chance to come up and make those big hits, it will happen. My time will come."