Quote Originally Posted by pbmax View Post
Randall has some things to square away beside the groin, he had a couple of bad outings early too. But between the groin and his knee, he was not the same guy at the end of the season.
Since you brought up a point I was wondering about, I'll ask you, PB et al. No excuse, just a fact; Randall had injury concerns this year. He often seemed to give a huge cushion in coverage which often seemed to lead to a target for the guy Randall was covering, which lead to replays where Randall looked like he was late on every target to the guy he was covering. He never really seemed like a ball hawk, all over his guy type of player.

Did he play like that because of his injury or because he's processing too much information and not just reacting? If a guy has a groin and knee injuries, is it possible he was giving that cushion to make sure he had time to react/close and "keep things in front of him" but ultimately getting bled by a thousand cuts?

I recall a few plays in his rookie year when he played press man well; where he anticipated well. I saw one such play in person against the Panthers when Cam threw an out route and Randall undercut the route and got a pick when the Packers were trying to come back. Then there was the pick six against the Raiders.

I think sometimes toughing it out and playing through injuries is admirable, showing toughness, but can mask a players true abilities because they just can't go like they are cable of going, but we see them out there, so many think, well he's good enough to be out there, but that doesn't always lead to effective play. We'll know next year should he be able to stay healthy.