Damarious Randall‘s situation is not one to take likely and could considerably affect the beginning of the Green Bay Packers’ 2016 season.
The Green Bay Packers are not off to a great start to the offseason. Mike Pennel was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and now Damarious Randall has involved himself in his own incident.
As reported by ABC15 Phoenix News, Randall was driving a black Maserati on Sunday night in Scottsdale, Arizona with former teammate and Houston Texans’ wide receiver Jaelen Strong and another passenger when they were pulled over by police for not having a visible license plate.
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The police officer could smell marijuana coming from the interior of the car and asked Randall, Strong and the other passenger if they had marijuana on their persons. Strong admitted that he had marijuana and didn’t have a medical card for it. Strong was arrested for possession of marijuana and released later on pending charges. Randall and the other passenger were not arrested.
The incident does not look good for Randall–even if he wasn’t arrested. It could probably be well assumed that Randall will get selected for “random” substance testing at some point in the near future. The Green Bay Packers have backed their players who have had entanglements with the law–most recently Letroy Guion‘s legal situation from last offseason. The best thing for Randall to do right now is distance himself from Strong.
So far there has been no suspension handed down to Randall from the neither the league office nor the Green Bay Packers. It remains unclear if a suspension will ever reach Randall. Under the league’s substance abuse policy, if Randall fails a random drug test, since it would be his first he would only get fine and be put through stage one of the league’s intervention program.
If the Packers entered the season without Damarious Randall, they would be losing probably the best slot cornerback on the team. Casey Hayward is set to hit free agency in a little bit more than a week, which means he wouldn’t be an option for Week 1. If Hayward is gone and Randall is suspended then Micah Hyde would likely fill the void at the slot position.
It’s not an ideal position for the Packers considering their potential nose tackle Mike Pennel was suspended for the first four games of the season. Now there is a chance they could be losing their starting slot cornerback.
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Randall had an impressive rookie season where he led the team in passes defended with 14, tied for most team interceptions with three, and logged 56 total tackles on the season. His production is one that wouldn’t simply be made up by substituting players like Demetri Goodson or Ladarius Gunter.
If a substantial absence occurs it could really hinder the Packers defense. After hoping to get off to a running start on the 2016 season, the Packers could come out of the gates slower than expected.