We haven’t been big fans of Casey Hayward for a while. The play-making ability he showed as a rookie seems to somehow have disappeared.
Hayward has been solid this year, but that’s just it. The Packers have plenty of solid, what they lack are playmakers.
Enter rookie Damarious Randall.
That dude’s a playmaker. We were squawking for Randall to take Hayward’s starting spot all the way back in training camp. The Green Bay Packers finally made that move a number of weeks ago and the secondary has only gotten stronger.
Part of the reason is Randall, but an equal part of the reason may be that Hayward has always been better as a slot cornerback anyway. When the guy has made plays throughout his career, he’s made them playing that position.
Now he’s back in the slot where he belongs.
On the surface, that appears to be a demotion, but Hayward doesn’t see it that way and isn’t afraid to tell you about it.
“I’m the best inside guy in the NFL. Why not have me in there?” Hayward asked rhetorically. “We kind of got three starters that can play. You have two that can play that only play outside (Shields and Randall) and another one that plays outside and inside, which is me. I’m going to be the guy that plays inside when we need to go inside, especially with how much we play. I think we might play it the most in the NFL.”
That’s probably true.
The latter part, anyway. The Packers do play a lot of nickel — over 70 percent of their defensive snaps — so Hayward is still more or less a starter.
While he may not be a great boundary corner, he’s still a very good slot corner, regardless of whether his ball skills have deserted him. The statistics seems to suggest they have — Hayward doesn’t have a pick this season.
But as a No. 3 guy, the Packers sure as hell could do a lot worse.
Best in the league? That’s hard to say, but at least the guy has confidence.