GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The smile is back. So is the bounce in Ha Ha Clinton-Dix's step as he bounds into the Green Bay Packers' locker room after their latest preseason game.

"I'm always happy," he insists.

"Win, lose or draw as long as I'm healthy and the family's doing good, I'm always in a happy mood."

Clinton-Dix would've had a hard time convincing anyone of that late last season.

Seven months ago, he looked defeated as he cleaned out his locker following the most difficult season of his five-year pro career. His only NFL defensive coordinator, Dom Capers, a man he defended on that same day while he ripped some of his teammates, had just been fired, and Clinton-Dix had just come off a game -- a meaningless regular-season finale -- in which it appeared he gave less than his full effort.

"Some days people don't want to come work," Clinton-Dix says now. "People have their days where they don't want to come to work. But man, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be with my defense."

Here's what excites Clinton-Dix:

Cornerback Tramon Williams, who helped mentor Clinton-Dix as a rookie in 2014 before leaving in free agency, is back in Green Bay.

The likable yet stern Mike Pettine is now in charge of the defense.

And the disappointment of last season is more than half a year behind him.

"It's beautiful," Clinton-Dix says. "It's new to me. Revived. New life. New coach. New feel. New team. This isn't the same team as last year. I guess the mojo is a little different from last year. But it's been cool. It's been a cool camp."

That's saying something considering it wasn't the easiest offseason for Clinton-Dix. His godmother, Alisa Dorsett, died after she suffered a heart attack while in Alabama for Clinton-Dix's college graduation. He received his degree in criminal justice four years after he entered the NFL draft. Dorsett was an administrator at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida, which Clinton-Dix attended.

He skipped the Packers' voluntary OTAs, and he has only this season left on his contract. It's the fifth-year option, worth $5.957 million, that the Packers exercised more than a year ago when he was coming off his Pro Bowl season of 2016.

Clinton-Dix's future income is riding on what he does this season.

"The sky's the limit," Clinton-Dix said in concluding his interview with ESPN.com following last Thursday's preseason game against the Steelers. "Super excited. I've got a great opportunity in front of me to lead this secondary, pick up where I left off. I'm excited for that."

Williams, who spent the past three years with other teams (two with the Browns and one with the Cardinals), sees a more mature Clinton-Dix than when he left the Packers after the 2014 season. He sees a leader in the mold of a Charles Woodson or Nick Collins -- Pro Bowl defensive backs who carried the utmost respect in the locker room.

"First of all he has the ability," Williams said. "He has the knowledge and when he speaks, he can come command the room. A guy like that, you know that's all you can ask of him. He has all the ability to do so. Those guys, when you speak of the Nicks and the Charleses, Ha definitely has the ability to do that. We just have to keep working. Football is the ultimate team game; everybody has to be on the same page. It's going to happen. He has it in him already, so we've just get him back and get it out of him."

If Clinton-Dix views this season as a fresh start, so do the Packers' coaches. Former safeties coach Darren Perry did not return when coach Mike McCarthy restructured his staff. Clinton-Dix is now under the tutelage of secondary coach Jason Simmons (a special-teams assistant last year) and defensive passing game coordinator Joe Whitt (who previously coached cornerbacks).

"The best part of that to me is I can be completely objective because I was on special teams," Simmons said. "You know what I mean? My focus was my job at the time, so all I can speak to is where Ha Ha is now. He is determined. For whatever reason that may be internally, I don't really care. But I'll tell you what, I like where he is mentally. He's leading this team, he's leading the secondary, he's leading the defense. He's a guy that we can lean on and look forward to seeing him play."

Said Whitt: "As a team, we had a down year. Everybody. I think everybody fell short. As a team, we're all trying to make sure that we're focused on 2018, dive into the playbook, dive into your individual technique and make sure we all do our job to be the best Green Bay Packers we can be, individually and collectively. I don't want to single out Ha Ha or anybody else. This is a new year. Every team is different; every year is different. I've said this before up here, this is a business that you have to continually prove yourself. Good or bad, you have to do it. Even if you had the best year of your life last year, hey, you're going to have to prove yourself again. That's what we're trying to do."