GREEN BAY, Wis. – A few quick thoughts on the Green Bay Packers' first-round pick.
The pick: Damarious Randall, safety, Arizona State
My take: There was no reason to think Randall was anywhere on the Packers' radar, given that safety probably ranked near the bottom of their list of needs. Maybe people should have looked at him as a cornerback, as the Packers did. That's where the Packers plan to play him, and why not, given that plenty of scouts raved about his coverage ability. He's not exactly the pure, outside cover man the Packers needed after Tramon Williams and Davon House left in free agency. But that's not necessarily a problem if Randall is the pure cover man general manager Ted Thompson believes he is. Thompson said the Arizona State coaches told him they played Randall at safety because that's where they needed their best defensive players.
By the numbers: Randall measured 5-foot-10⅞ and weighed in at 196 pounds at the scouting combine. From a height standpoint, that's awfully close to the Packers' minimum height requirement for cornerbacks, which is 5-10½. Randall ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash at the combine and recorded a 38-inch vertical jump. Since drafting Aaron Rodgers in the first round in 2005, the Packers have used eight of their past 10 first-round picks on defensive players.
No good trade options: Thompson fielded several calls from teams that were interested in the 30th overall pick, and he listened. But, as the GM put it, "a lot of the trade proposals were skewed in the other team’s favor." The last time the Packers had the 30th pick was 2008, when they traded out of the first round and ended up taking Jordy Nelson early in the second round.