The Cleveland Browns should consider bringing back Damarious Randall

The Cleveland Browns are still in need of some secondary help and they can resolve some issues by bringing in former player Damarious Randall.

Damarious Randall was a good, but expandable part of the Cleveland Browns last year. The hope by not re-signing him was that the Browns would go get someone like Anthony Harris or draft do-it-all-rookie Isaiah Simmons. The Browns did not bring in anyone that was substantially better than Randall. He’s played all over the defensive backfield in his time as a pro, and that type of versatility could help the Browns moving forward.

After not being re-signed, he landed with the Raiders to start the 2020 offseason but was cut after several other safeties outperformed previous expectations.

While some will say the Browns already brought in some help, it’s worth reminding people that the secondary wasn’t great before the injuries to Grant Delpit and Kevin Johnson. The idea that the team is now “ok” in the secondary after one trade just isn’t true.

The Browns did improve their secondary some by acquiring former Jacksonville Jaguars safety Ronnie Harrison near the end of pre-season. Harrison won’t start for the Browns, at least right away, but will be a key contributor moving forward. A big problem is that both Andrew Sendejo and Karl Joseph are short-term fixes to the problems at safety. Neither man can be expected or counted on to truly step up and be playmakers this year. They have too much history working against them.

At least by bringing in Randall you’d have someone you could bring in and use if Sendejo and/or Joseph aren’t up to snuff. Randall wasn’t a great tackler but he helped lead the Browns to respectable numbers against the pass in 2019 and that might not be the worst type of player to bring back.

The bonus of Randall isn’t just his ability to fill in if the team has issues at safety but also his ability to fill in if the team has issues at corner as well. Not only that, but he played in a vastly similar defense for the Browns last year and could slide in as a third-safety in certain sets Week 1 if need be.

Hopefully, both Greedy Williams and Denzel Wards play better in 2020 than they did in 2019, but in the off chance they don’t or if Williams just can’t find consistency, then maybe someone like Randall could help step in and shore up the issues as they arise.

He’s not a cure-all but for a year at $1.5 million, he’d be worth finding out.