Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy was vague when discussing his team’s decision to trade away Damarious Randall while talking with reporters at the NFL’s owners meetings Tuesday, but he was rather revealing about Randall’s impending position change back to safety.

McCarthy admitted Randall, the Packers’ first-round pick in 2015, had been playing out of position as a true cornerback during his first three years in Green Bay, mostly out of pure necessity.

The Cleveland Browns plan to move him back full-time to free safety, his collegiate position.

“I think that’s his natural position. I think we all recognize that. Him playing as much corner for us was the best thing for our defense at the time, with Morgan (Burnett) and Ha Ha (Clinton-Dix) and really utilizing the players the best way we can,” McCarthy said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Obviously, we’ve had issues outside with corners staying healthy the last two years and that’s a product of him playing out there, and he played it well when he was healthy, when he stays in the game.”

McCarthy also said the Packers were planning on playing Randall in a more hybrid role that included snaps at safety. But the team instead traded him away, a move McCarthy said was the “best thing” for the Packers and Randall, who was arguably the defense’s best cornerback in 2017.

A roaming safety at Arizona State, Randall played almost all of his snaps from 2015-17 as either a perimeter corner or slot corner. Many thought Randall was the top free safety prospect in the 2015 draft.

Why the Packers took a safety in the first round after drafting Clinton-Dix and extending Burnett’s contract is an entirely different issue.

Once again, however, the Packers were forced – either by injuries or personnel mistakes – to fit a square peg into a round hole. Randall often thrived as a cornerback, thanks to his above-average man-to-man coverage skills, but even McCarthy can now admit that he wasn’t being utilized in a way that maximized Randall’s potential.

The same could be said for Casey Hayward, who moved outside from the slot and became an All-Pro for the Los Angeles Chargers. Or Micah Hyde, who moved from cornerback to safety and produced an All-Pro season for the Buffalo Bills in 2017.

In Cleveland, Randall will get a legitimate chance to follow in their footsteps. McCarthy admitted the position change could make all the difference.

“I think he could have as big a year as anybody’s ever had because he’s got tremendous range, he’s smart, he’s got a unique skill set,” McCarthy said. “But yeah, I mean, free safety is where he wants to play.”

Maybe with a new general manager and a new defensive coordinator, the Packers will have a better handle on how to acquire, develop and utilize defensive backs. Randall looks like another example in a growing list of players the Packers weren’t using right in the secondary. Like the Chargers and Bills, the Packers’ mistake could be the Browns’ gain.