CLEVELAND — The Green Bay Packers didn’t deploy Damarious Randall to his favorite position on the football field, but Packers East plans to do so.
After spending three seasons playing cornerback for the Packers, Randall will receive a shot at free safety with the Browns, whose player personnel department is headed by three longtime Green Bay scouts — General Manager John Dorsey, assistant GM Eliot Wolf and vice president of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith.
“Great, great move. I love it,” Randall said on Thursday. “That’s where I wanted to play since I came into the league, and I’m just really looking forward to it.”
On March 9, Dorsey traded quarterback DeShone Kizer and 2018 draft picks in the fourth (No. 101 overall) and fifth (No. 138) rounds for Randall and 2018 selections in the fourth (No. 114) and fifth (No. 150) rounds.
Randall, 25, played free safety at Arizona State University, but he moved to cornerback after the Packers drafted him in the first round (No. 30 overall) in 2015. He has played corner almost exclusively in the NFL, with only 37 of his snaps in three seasons coming at safety, according to ProFootballFocus.com.
“I just did whatever I had to do to help the team win games,” Randall said. “Just wherever the coaches needed me, that is just where I played.”
Starting 30 of the 39 regular-season games in which he appeared with the Packers, Randall compiled 144 tackles with 32 passes defensed, including 10 interceptions. His tenure was wildly inconsistent, though.
Last season, the coaches benched him and sent him to the locker room Sept. 28 against the Chicago Bears. At the time, Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s committee of veteran players suggested Randall should be released, according to ESPN.com. But the organization stuck with him, and he rebounded with an interception in each of the next three games and posted a career-high four last season. He was inactive for the final two games with an injured knee and had hand surgery in January.
Randall, 5-foot-11 and 196 pounds, also engaged in an ugly Twitter fight last year with Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon after they played each other. Gordon took exception to Randall bragging to media that he held the receiver to just one catch, and Randall fired back by alluding to Gordon’s battle with alcohol and drug addiction.
But Randall met Gordon on Wednesday to smooth things over.
“We just had a great, great dinner,” Randall said. “We’re looking forward to being great teammates and just winning a lot of games.
“It was just two athletes competing, and we just got into a heated battle. We’re teammates now, and we’re in the same locker room.”
The Browns trust Randall because Wolf and Highsmith were with him during his entire time with the Packers.
“I have a high degree of confidence in Alonzo Highsmith and Eliot,” said Dorsey, the GM of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2013-16. “I think they are very successful in what they do. When they give strong recommendations, I listen to those recommendations.
“Now, personally, I watched Randall in college, and I thought he was a really good football player. He has natural feet. He has really excellent athletic skill sets. He gives you great flexibility. He can play corner. He can play safety.”
And Randall is happy the Browns plan to give him an opportunity at free safety.
The move will allow Jabrill Peppers to transition to strong safety. Defensive Gregg Williams has said he used Peppers as a free safety this past season, often stationing the 25th overall pick in last year’s draft 20-25 yards off the ball, out of necessity because there wasn’t a better option on the roster.
The Browns believe Randall can now solve that problem.
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