Cheese Curds, 12/1: Rasul Douglas goes from practice squad to Player of the Week

It’s not like Rasul Douglas wasn’t an NFL-caliber player. But for whatever reason, the fifth-year veteran cornerback simply could not stick on an NFL roster earlier this season. Douglas had started at least five games in each of his four seasons after being drafted in the third round of the 2017 draft, but he just didn’t find a long-term home this summer, eventually landing on the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad.

Now he is the reigning NFC Defensive Player of the Week after a largely dominant performance against the Los Angeles Rams.

Turnarounds like that don’t happen every day in the NFL, but it’s exciting and fun to see it when it does happen. Douglas has been a major spark for the Packers defense and is a big reason for the unit’s solid play in the past several games. Between his pick-six on Sunday and his interception in the end zone against his old Cardinals teammates, Douglas has two of the Packers’ most impactful and thrilling plays of the season.

Let’s all be thankful that Brian Gutekunst found him and that he has integrated so well into the Packers’ defense over these past seven games.

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Douglas' pick-six and four pass breakups earned him the honor, the first of these for the Packers since Za'Darius Smith in week 4 of last year when he had three sacks.

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Projecting NFC playoff seeds, Baker Mayfield’s and Lamar Jackson’s futures and more – The Athletic
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Best mistake ever?