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After opening the year only playing free safety for the Cardinals, Tyrann Mathieu back into his role as a slot corner a few weeks ago in hopes of starting to have the same kind of impact on games that he had before tearing his ACL last season.

When Mathieu was playing safety, he wasn’t in the thick of things the way he is when he’s playing corner and that means he wasn’t being tested by opposing offenses anywhere near as often as he had been in the past. That’s changed with the move back to the slot and Mathieu says the tests he’s facing have shown him that he’s still not 100 percent back to form.

“It will probably be that way until I start making plays,” Mathieu said, via the Arizona Republic. “Drag routes, pick routes, drive routes, they just want to see if I can explode and be able to get from Point A to Point B. A lot of teams are going to attack me like that. … What hurts the most is when you know what teams are going to do and you can’t stop them. I know it’s coming and I’m still a step behind.”

Mathieu feels like the brace he’s wearing on his right knee is part of the problem, saying it “restricts me a lot” but that he doesn’t want to take it off too soon and leave himself vulnerable to another injury.