2013 NFL Draft: Arizona Cardinals Take Risk on Tyrann Mathieu


(Derick E. Hingle/USA Today Sports)

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2013 NFL Draft was where LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu would land–assuming a team would be willing to take a chance on him. Not only did the Honey Badger find a home for the 2013 season, but he’ll be reunited with one of his former teammates as well in Patrick Peterson.

The Arizona Cardinals decided Mathieu was worth the risk after selecting him with the 69th pick in the third round on Friday. The Cardinals had plenty of areas in need of improvement for the 2013 season after finishing with a disappointing 5-11 record last year and even though it seemed tempting to select a quarterback–this seems like a pick that could turn out to be a low risk, high reward for the Cardinals.

When he was staying out of trouble, Mathieu proved to be one of the most dangerous players in college football during his playing time with the Tigers. Unfortunately, it was Mathieu’s off-the-field issues that forced him to fall this late in the draft and if he was able to play last year–there’s a good chance he would have been a first-round selection this year.

Now, Mathieu receives an opportunity to give Arizona one of the most dangerous duos at cornerback if he can manage to focus on football and stay out of trouble. Mathieu still has plenty to prove from a maturity perspective, but hopefully the former LSU star takes notice what Adam Jones of the Cincinnati Bengals has done to turn his career around and follow a similar path.

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