Well-traveled cornerback Rasul Douglas has found a home, thanks to developing a knack for huge plays. It started in Week Eight to seal the Thursday night classic at Arizona, with an end-zone interception. It continued in Saturday’s Christmas Day win over the Browns, with a pair of interceptions including the one that iced the 24-22 win. In between, Douglas had pick-sixes in back-to-back victories over the Rams and the Bears.
After his latest exploits, the former third-round pick of the Eagles in 2017 (he has a Super Bowl ring from his rookie year) received high praise from his two most important teammates.
“He hasn’t been a superstar in this league per se until now,” receiver Davante Adams told reporters regarding Douglas. “You see what he’s about now. I think it’s pretty safe to say that he’s a superstar at the cornerback position. But he’s a great dude more than anything, man.”
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers concurred. “He’s a star,” Rodgers said at his press conference. “I mean, he’s got incredible ball skills. He’s around the ball all the time. He’s changed our team. He really has.”
For his part, Douglas disputed the characterization.
“I don’t think I’m a superstar yet,” he told reporters. “I think we have two superstars on our team, 12 and 17. But yeah it means a lot. I’m just trying to just keep working. Just keeping trying to mean something to the team.”
He has found meaning during the grind-it-out process of studying film and looking for tendencies and tells that will let him spot a potential chance to jump a route and make a pick.
“It always transfers over,” he said regarding the connection between film study and performance. “I go through every week with the same mindset. I try to look for plays that maybe I can get an interception on and that I could jump. And I always tell my safeties what plays I’m gonna jump so in case I do and it’s not that, hopefully they’re in the post. If not, hopefully Jesus is in the post to save me.”
Douglas has helped save the Packers on multiple occasions this year, providing the kind of support to a team that, even with Rodgers and Adams, needs many other high-level in order to achieve the highest possible goal.
Meanwhile, the front office deserves credit for landing Douglas. After three seasons in Philly in one in Carolina, he bounced around from the Raiders to the Texans to the Cardinals before settling on the Arizona practice squad. Anyone could have offered him a roster spot. The Packers, after injuries to Jaire Alexander and Kevin King, did. Surely, they had no idea what they were getting, or they would have pursued him much, much sooner.
Plenty of other teams now surely wish they had, too.
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