Tyrann Mathieu calls out the teams that drafted DBs ahead of him

This cornerback draft class didn’t turn out well, with a few exceptions.

Tyrann Mathieu wasn’t going to let off teams for whiffing on a few cornerbacks in the 2013 NFL Draft.

The Kansas City Chiefs defensive back, clearly still riding a high from his Super Bowl in February, was chatting with Bleacher Report draft analyst Matt Miller on Sunday morning. Mathieu asked Miller to point out who got drafted in front of him. Miller shared the following graphic (below), which showed the partially unimpressive class.

The top cornerback, Dee Milliner, had an awful four-year career, which started under Rex Ryan and the New York Jets. Cornerback D.J. Hayden flunked out with the Oakland Raiders, though his work as the Detroit Lions’ third cornerback in 2019 seems to have brought small bit of hope to his career.

Then there’s a group of impressive picks: the Falcons’ Desmond Trufant, the Vikings’ Xavier Howard and the Lions’ Darius Slay. After them, we’re back in no-name’s land, with a handful of players who haven’t established themselves in the league. Finally, we get to Mathieu, the 69th overall pick in the third round.

“Oh my… @_bigplayslay23 what were they thinking ….” Mathieu wrote on Twitter Sunday.

The important context is that the LSU Tigers dismissed Mathieu for a failed drug test and an arrest in 2013. He missed his final college season, which had many NFL teams worried about whether he could handle the rigors of professional football.

That said, this sort of poor drafting is commonplace in the NFL — and pretty much every pro sports league. As fun and hyped-up as the drafts are, the process is a mix of educated guesses and a game of chance.

The NFL may have an even harder time in 2020, because the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19, has limited visits and physicals during the pre-draft process. Players with red flags — whether due to character or physical issues — likely won’t get the same level of scrutiny as in years past.

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