NFL Rumors: Former LSU Tiger Tyrann Mathieu Will Enter 2013 NFL Draft

This is the Honey Badger, the former LSU Tigers cornerback who was a college football star and a Heisman Trophy finalist last year.

This is the Honey Badger, a college football star who was kicked out of college because of a drug problem. The problem became so bad that he entered a rehabilitation center in Houston during the summer.

This is the Honey Badger, who got released from rehab and enrolled back at LSU in early September.

This is the Honey Badger, who was arrested for possession of marijuana in late October.

And this is the Honey Badger, entering the 2013 NFL Draft.

According to ESPN’s Joe Schad, Tyrann Mathieu, one of the best college football players in the country as recently as last year, will announce that he is entering the NFL Draft in April of 2013.

Mathieu is an extremely talented cornerback who won the Bednarik Award as the best defensive player in college football and was also named a first team All-American last season. He also has elite skills as a returner.

The decision to turn pro was a pretty easy one for Mathieu since his options in college have appeared to dry up and now the process of evaluating the player they call the ‘Honey Badger’ begins. It’s very difficult to know where Mathieu will get drafted because it will be well over a year between the last time he’ll have played a game and the draft but there is plenty of tape from his playing days at LSU.

Mathieu’s size, just 5’9″ and 175 pounds, will surely work against him as a corner but he makes up for his size with tenacity and skill. There was also talk about him converting to safety but I cannot see that happening; he’s just too small for that position in the NFL.

The question isn’t if Mathieu will get drafted but when? I’m sure there will be plenty of teams who will take him off of their draft boards completely because of the off the field issues but there are always teams willing to draft talented players no matter the situation. It’s too early to tell where Mathieu will land but the next few months will take care of that.

I don’t know where he’ll get drafted but I do know one thing: this is the Honey Badger, NFL player.

you can contact or follow Ben on twitter @BenGrimaldi