We all know that the Steelers usually stray away from those players that have red flags, and have been in prior trouble, but there is a player in this year’s draft that I think the Steelers should take a look at. Tyrann Mathieu is a player who has had his past troubles, but seems to be turning things around. You don’t have to go back very far to the last time the Steelers took a player with a red flag. Last year they took offensive tackle Mike Adams out of Ohio State who had some issues out of college, but he showed the Steelers that he could clean up his act and wanted to play in the NFL.
Mathieu hasn’t played in a game since his LSU Tigers lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the National Title game in 2012. In August of 2012, Mathieu was dismissed from the team for supposed repeated drug test failures. A week later, he dropped out of LSU and went to rehab in Texas. Then in September, he ended his withdrawal from school and signed up for fall classes. But a little more than a month after signing up for classes, Mathieu was arrested for possession of marijuana. After all of that, he still couldn’t keep clean, and his chances to play in the National Football League weren’t looking so pretty.
Since his arrest in October, he really stayed off the radar and you didn’t hear much about him. Then he was invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. The Combine is place for college athletes to show scouts their abilities. This was the perfect opportunity for Mathieu to showcase that he is a changed man and was still the playmaker he was while he played at LSU.
Mathieu did exceptionally well at the combine, and showed that his skills haven’t fallen off in his year off. He is a 5-foot, 9-inch cornerback, and he is expected to be picked in the third to fourth round. His 40-yard dash time was decent at 4.5 seconds, 34-inch vertical leap, and 117-inch broad jump. The only thing that he did badly at the combine was the bench press in which he only did four reps. Other than that his times and measurements were above average.
The Steelers could always use another playmaker on their team, and it just so happens that they are the deepest at the cornerback position either. He could fill a future hole with Ike Taylor getting up there in age, and I doubt that the Steelers could have much faith in anyone other than Cortez Allen, and William Gay at that position. Mathieu is projected as a quality nickel corner who could come in and shut down the opposing team’s slot receiver. He is also a huge factor in the return game, as in college he was a Heisman finalist for not only his stellar playmaking on defense, but for his amazing return skills.
Another area the Steelers could look to improve on since they released Chris Rainey. No way can they have their number one receiver in Antonio Brown back there. So the possibility of getting Mathieu in the one of the middle rounds could potentially help the Steelers get better in two areas. At the LSU pro day it was reported that Head Coach Mike Tomlin was having a conversation with Mathieu. So you have to wonder if he’s on the Steeler’s radar if he can prove he’s a changed man.
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