I’ve heard a lot of people bemoan the decision the Green Bay Packers made not to bring Micah Hyde back.
I also understand the reasons they didn’t. The primary one was that Hyde is too slow to play cornerback and the Packers have a wealth of safeties. In theory, the top two safety tandem of Morgan Burnett and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is impenetrable.
Burnett has been solid this year, but guess what.
As we have always said, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is garbage. He is even more garbage this year and even casual fans are starting to notice that his status is largely made up.
Simply, Clinton-Dix gets by on the fact that he was a first-round draft pick. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills put Micah Hyde at safety and lo and behold!
Micah Hyde is the AFC's Defensive Player of the Month!
You earned it, @micah_hyde! #GoBills pic.twitter.com/pLQyAjTGUi
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 2, 2017
I surely don’t have to point out that Hyde leads the NFL in interceptions with five. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix gets five interceptions in a season in his wet dream.
Ultimately, the Packers made a mistake with Hyde. They made a mistake because they are predictable. Ted Thompson is predictatable.
If the Packers would have re-signed Hyde, they would have stuck him back at cornerback. He was solid enough for the Packers there last year, but everyone in football and most fans always knew Hyde’s best position was safety.
Unfortunately, we also all know Thompson is in love with his own draft picks. At some point, he saw something that made him fall in love. That one day, this guy is gonna be a star!
I wonder how Datone Jones is doing with that. But I digress…
Thompson and the Packers would never part with Clinton-Dix. They would never say, hell, this Micah Hyde guy might actually be a better safety! He might actually be better than the guy we drafted, what’s his name? He He Hillary-Cox?
He couldn’t have any less ball awareness or blow anymore assignments than the guy we drafted in the first round, could he Mike?
But that’s the thing about the Packers. We, and they, don’t have any idea how good their own guys are until they’re playing elsewhere. Because why would you ever give a lesser draft pick a chance to prove he’s better?
That wouldn’t be the Packers way.
The Packers draft and develop and if they didn’t play their first-round picks, even if they aren’t better than their fourth-round picks, well, that would disprove the theory. And that would make Ted Thompson be seen for what he truly is — a guy who drafted a generational player one time and then sucked ass for a decade.
Can’t have that.