Seahawks re-sign Damarious Randall to compete with D.J. Reed as low-cost cornerback option
The Seahawks’ low-cost option at cornerback isn’t Quinton Dunbar.
It’s Damarious Randall or D.J. Reed.
Randall re-signed with the team on Friday. When the Seahawks announced the deal, they said they are moving the former NFL first-round draft choice from safety, where he played some last season, to cornerback.
Cornerback is where Randall started for the first three seasons of his NFL career, with Green Bay in 2015-17.
The Packers drafted Randall 30th overall in 2015 out of Arizona State to be a cornerback.
The Seahawks were seeking a new, veteran cornerback to start opposite Ahkello Witherspoon, the former San Francisco 49er Seattle signed last month for $4 million guaranteed to replace 2019 Pro Bowl corner Shaquill Griffin. Griffin left Seattle and signed in free agency with home-state Jacksonville last month.
Dunbar was the Seahawks’ starter opposite Griffin in 2020. Dunbar was an option to re-sign to an inexpensive, short-term contract after his season-ending knee injury last winter and legal problems last year in Florida.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider chose to let Dunbar leave. He signed this week with the Detroit Lions for the veteran-minimum salary of $910,000 this year.
Randall is the same age, 28, and returns about as cheaply. And he’s not coming off season-ending knee surgery.
He played 35 snaps on defense over six games for the Seahawks in 2020, as a safety in nickel and dime, five- and six-defensive-back situations. He played 10 games on special teams.
Seattle signed Randall to its practice squad at the start of last season, after he’d spent last preseason with the Las Vegas Raiders. He came up from the practice squad in October to begin playing in games for the Seahawks. He moved from cornerback to safety in 2018 after Green Bay traded him to the Cleveland Browns.
The Seahawks have Reed returning to compete with Randall to be a starting cornerback in 2021.
Reed was a revelation for Seattle in 2020. He won that job opposite Griffin in the final months of last season with relentlessly ultra-aggressive play and a self-described chip on his shoulder he says will never leave. That’s from the 49ers giving up on him last summer following an injury, before Seattle claimed him on waivers.
Reed and Randall can play inside as a slot, nickel cornerbacks. Seattle also has Marquise Blair coming back from season-ending knee surgery in September. Blair, the team’s impressive second-round draft choice, was Seattle’s starting nickel defensive back for 2020 until his injury.
Neither Reed or Randall fit the prototype Carroll seeks in his Seahawks cornerbacks: the Richard Sherman-type height and arm length. Reed is 5 feet 9. Randall is 5-11. Neither is 200 pounds, and neither have 32-inch arm lengths, Carroll’s usual Seattle prerequisite.
But Reed’s play last season—plus the need to cut costs this year with the salary cap reduced by $16 million per team—demand Carroll and the Seahawks consider alternatives to their prototypical tall, rangy, long-armed cornerback.
Then again, Sherman remains available in free agency...
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
