Field Yates explains how Cleveland picked up former first-rounder Calvin Pryor from the Jets in exchange for LB Demario Davis. (0:35)

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers should be thanking the New York Jets today.

For it was back in the 2014 draft that the Jets took the decision out of the Packers’ hands. There were two safeties worth taking where the Packers sat at No. 21, and coach Mike McCarthy’s team desperately needed one of them (remember M.D. Jennings?).

When the Jets took Calvin Pryor at No. 18, it made general manager Ted Thompson’s decision for him. He would take Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Maybe Thompson would have picked Clinton-Dix over Pryor anyway, but Thursday offered another reminder of just how well that turned out in Green Bay. The Jets traded the disappointing Pryor to the Cleveland Browns for journeyman linebacker Demario Davis.

Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix "has presence," said Packers coach McCarthy. "You could see it as a young player, and it's definitely something that's grown in his time here." Daniel Bartel/Icon Sportswire

Pryor was viewed as the harder hitter between him and Clinton-Dix. Then-Jets coach Rex Ryan compared Pryor to the legendary playmaker Jack Tatum -- “an enforcer back there,” Ryan said at the time. The Packers, meanwhile, believed they got a well-rounded safety.

While Pryor flamed out in New York, Clinton-Dix has thrived with the Packers. He’s coming off his first Pro Bowl season and is viewed internally as one of the building blocks and leaders on defense.

On the way to the Pro Bowl last year, Clinton-Dix played every snap -- all 1,236 of them on defense -- and tied for the NFL lead in interceptions among safeties with five.

“Ha Ha Clinton-Dix has presence,” McCarthy said before Thursday’s OTA practice. “You could see it as a young player, and it’s definitely something that’s grown in his time here. He has credibility. He’s played at a high level for us. The statistic I’m most impressed with, he’s been over 1,000 reps every year since he’s been here. So he’s here every day, and his personality is definitely becoming a bigger part of our football team.”

The Packers last month exercised the fifth-year option on Clinton-Dix, meaning he’s under contract through the 2018 season. Who knows where Pryor will be by then?