GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Damarious Randall did not think his Thursday night was going to conclude by becoming the Green Bay Packers' top draft pick. Four years ago, the NFL Draft was the furthest thing from Randall's mind as he tried to follow the path of his brothers by playing professional baseball.
But as Ted Thompson looked over his options at No. 30 in the first round, he didn't want to let the Arizona State defensive back slip by.
"For some time now, we've had him pretty high up on our board," Thompson said. "The more you go back and look, he's a good football player."
Randall began his collegiate athletic career playing baseball as a shortstop and centerfielder at Butler Community College in Kansas. A shoulder injury ended his prospects on the diamond, sending Randall back to what he described as his "first love," football. He redshirted one year at Mesa Community College but had a breakout season on the football field in 2012, earning himself double-digit Division 1 scholarship offers.
Thompson loved Randall's baseball background, bringing it up on three different occasions in an eight-minute press conference.
"I'm telling you the truth, the fact that he played baseball, especially in the outfield and things like that, I think is a very good thing because of space and awareness and understanding of angles and that sort of thing," Thompson said.
After transferring to Arizona State, Randall was expecting to play cornerback. The coaching staff had no choice but to ask him to play safety.
"'We need you at safety because we have some corners that could hold their own out there and we just do not have a safety,'" Randall explained, recalling the conversation with Sun Devils coach Todd Graham. "So they just asked me to play that role and I would do whatever I can to help the team win."
Randall helped his team plenty, recording 15 tackles for loss and six interceptions in his two seasons with the program.
In talking with approximately 20 NFL teams leading up to the draft, Randall estimated that 12 of them were mostly interested in him as a cornerback, while eight looked at him at safety. The Packers were one of the teams that viewed Randall as a cornerback.
"Well, we think he's a very versatile player; we'll probably line him up as a corner," Thompson said. "But in (defensive coordinator) Dom (Capers') system, those defensive backs are all over the place. It's hard to keep up with who's playing what."
Cornerback or safety, Randall didn't mind either way.
"Really, honestly, I can play both," he said. "Corner's fun to be out there on an island, and then safety kind of being back there controlling the back end is also fun. So either one, just being on the field is just kind of my mindset."
The selection of Randall was a surprise to almost everyone. Based on the vast majority of big boards and national mock drafts, there were several higher-ranked defensive backs still there for the taking. Thompson said before the draft that he was "adamant" about picking the best player available.
All things considered, Randall didn't represent the best value at No. 30.
"We looked back at it and said at the end of the day, if we get just a good football player, it doesn't matter where we have to take him," Thompson said soon after drafting Randall. "If we have to take a guy higher than you want to take him, it doesn't matter. We just wanted a football player. In this case, we took a good football player, in our opinion, and we took him at a place where it was very reasonable in terms of cost."
Thompson acknowledged that he received a couple trade calls from teams wanting to get into the back end of the first round, but none of them were enticing enough.
"It was a long night, but we think it's a successful night," Thompson said. "We felt fortunate that we were able to draft Damarious Randall that late. A lot of names have to come off and that's a hard thing to go through, but we're glad to be where we are."
Randall measured in at the Scouting Combine at 5-foot-10 7/8 and 196 pounds. That's nearly identical to Packers cornerbacks Casey Hayward and Demetri Goodson.
With wide receivers in the division like Calvin Johnson (6-5, 236 pounds) in Detroit and Chicago now fielding Alshon Jeffery (6-3, 216) and No. 7 overall pick Kevin White (6-3, 215), Thompson isn't worried about his relatively undersized secondary.
"We're tall enough," Thompson said.
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