After spending the first three seasons of his career in Green Bay, Damarious Randall still keeps tabs on the Packers, and he seems to think that the team made a bad decision this week by firing Mike McCarthy.
During an interview with the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on Thursday, Randall referred to McCarthy as a great coach multiple times. The Browns safety entered the NFL in 2015 as a first-round pick of the Packers and then spent three years in Green Bay playing under McCarthy.
"Mike McCarthy is a great, great coach," Randall said. "I've got nothing but the utmost respect for him. I just wish him the best. I don't know why they fired him. He's definitely a good, good guy, and he's a great coach."
Instead of blaming McCarthy for the Packers' struggles this season, Randall suggested there might be another issue. When Randall was asked directly if McCarthy still has the ability to coach in the league, he seemed to pin the Packers' struggles on the team's front office and their over-reliance on Aaron Rodgers.
"I don't know," Randall said. "They traded away all their good players and they expect Aaron Rodgers to just be magical. The magic hasn't been so magical lately. But other than that, I don't know."
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When Randall says the Packers traded away all their good players, he's definitely including himself in that statement. The Packers dealt Randall to Cleveland back in March in exchange for quarterback DeShone Kizer. The Browns definitely won that trade with Randall now playing at a Pro Bowl level as a safety in Cleveland after spending three years as a corner in Green Bay.
Randall isn't the only player who's been shipped out of town. Over the past eight months, the Packers have traded away safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (to the Redskins), backup quarterback Brett Hundley (to the Seahawks) and running back Ty Montgomery (to the Ravens). The team also decided to cut ties with Jordy Nelson, who had long been one of Rodgers' favorite receivers.
The one thing that all these moves have in common is that they were pulled off by new Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, who was hired by the team in January. From the sound of it, Randall would pin the blame for the Packers' ugly season more on Gutekunst than on McCarthy.
"The GM that drafted me (Ted Thompson) was no longer there,'' said Randall. "So the guy that came in (Brian Gutekunst) felt they wanted to go a different direction. I've got nothing but respect for him. Just tell him thank you. I don't know what they were doing, but it is what it is."
If Gutekunst is the issue, we'll find out soon. If the Packers go through another bad season in 2019, he's almost certainly going to take the brunt of the blame. As for McCarthy, he seems to still be well-liked in Green Bay's locker room. The former Packers coach spoke to the team on Wednesday and got a standing ovation.
