<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4doG0u_0vKCpmIt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4doG0u_0vKCpmIt00" width="1763" height="1175" ></figure>Here’s a fun fact about Tyrann Mathieu’s career, one that’s slightly depressing for the New Orleans Saints safety: He has been in the NFL for so long that the New Orleans restaurant that hosted his draft party is no longer open.“I’m getting up there,” he said with a laugh.Happy’s Irish Pub, the former bar near Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux on Poydras Street, closed in 2018.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3dO7Wo_0vKCpmIt00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3dO7Wo_0vKCpmIt00" width="776" height="440" ></figure>Mathieu, six years after that, is still going strong.Now in his 12th season, the former LSU star has come a long way given just how chaotic the draft process was for him.The failed drug tests. The dismissal from the LSU football program. The fall to the third round. The rise to glory after that.Maybe it’s not surprising Mathieu turned out to be one of the league’s best players at his peak, that he’d win a Super Bowl or eventually would return home to New Orleans. He was, after all, a dominant college player who was highly recruited.But 12 years in the NFL is 12 years in the NFL. For that, Mathieu is appreciative and proud. Earlier this offseason, the 32-year-old wrote on social media, “Just finished my 12th minicamp. I’m about to re read my draft profile lol.”For whatever reason, Mathieu never did re-read his pre-draft profile — until a reporter approached him this week with pages of the scouting report printed off.Would you like to re-read it now?“Yeah, sure,” he said.* * *Standing at his locker, Mathieu scans the pieces of paper, and two things immediately stand out to him.“Cortland Finnegan? That was my comp?” Mathieu says.Comparisons are a rite of passage for NFL profiles like these, and for the one that Mathieu is reading, the former cornerback is listed. Nice player, an All-Pro even, but Cortland Finnegan?“That’s nuts,” Mathieu says.Stylistically, he points out, they aren’t the same. Finnegan was a similar size — and he had a toughness that Mathieu likely appreciates — but the former 10-year vet was an outside cornerback. Mathieu is a safety, and when he did play cornerback earlier in his career, it was on the inside.The other thing Mathieu focuses on right away are the negatives. Mathieu glances at the strengths section and flips the page to see what’s under the weaknesses.That Mathieu does this says a lot about him. He acknowledges as much, saying he’s “the type of dude” who focuses on what he has to improve rather than what he does well. All the great ones do.On the Saints, Demario Davis shares a similar sentiment. Asked last month whether he ever revisits his pre-draft scouting report, the linebacker revealed he has it saved on his phone. When he pulled up the article and started to share it with reporters, Davis also skipped his strengths to get to the weaknesses. In this case, he was grateful.“A lot of those things they called out as weaknesses, I’ve turned into strengths,” Davis said. “That’s one of the things I’ve realized in life is you have to be humble enough to hear your weaknesses from somebody else and be able to make those corrections. So even if I thought they were wrong, it was something somebody else thought I could work on.“What I did was I worked on those, and now I see those things as strengths.”Back in the locker room, Mathieu starts to read aloud from the weaknesses section: “Mathieu’s issues with substance abuse should be the primary focus in his NFL career. He possesses below average size for the position. He usually brings down ball carriers of any size.”He interjects.“That’s kind of contradictory,” Mathieu says, referring to the last two sentences.He continues and finishes the rest of the section. There are parts he agrees with, such as the observation he plays quicker than fast. But there are others that bug him. The idea that he’d have to prove himself against bigger receivers and tight ends in man coverage? He always played bigger than his 5-foot-9 size at LSU, so he doesn’t see why it would ever be a concern.Then there was the drugs issue.Mathieu’s issues with substance abuse were well documented when he was at LSU. He got kicked off the team for repeatedly failing drug tests, entered rehab and then was arrested with three others on possession of marijuana.The saga was a real question for teams, too. They wondered, he says, about whether Mathieu really cared about football or if the “Honey Badger ... just wanted to be famous.” He says he was worried about whether he'd get the chance to prove himself.“I was just trying to convince people that I care about the game,” Mathieu says. “You know what I mean? I would do anything to stay on track.”It isn’t lost on Mathieu, though, that the drug issues were perhaps a relic of the moment. While marijuana possession is still illegal in Louisiana, the NCAA has removed the drug from its banned substance list. And in 2020, the NFL loosened its drug-testing policies so players who test positive for marijuana no longer face suspension.“Everybody smokes weed now, huh? It’s crazy,” Mathieu chuckles. “I was ahead of my time.”* * *If the 2013 NFL Draft were to be redrafted today, Mathieu estimates he would be picked in the top four.“Probably right after (Travis) Kelce,” Mathieu says, “a couple linemen. Lane Johnson, people like that.”It’s not a bad guess. Of the 254 players selected that year, only 18 are left on an NFL roster. And Mathieu’s three first-team All-Pro nods are tied for the third-most of his class, behind only Kelce and Pittsburgh’s Cordarrelle Patterson (as a kick returner). According to Stathead’s weighted career approximate value metric, Mathieu ranks seventh.But Mathieu went in the third round, 69th overall, to Arizona. This still upsets him. This is not because the Cardinals were the wrong team for him — quite the opposite as Mathieu thrived on an Arizona team that knew how to deploy his strengths — but because he felt he should have gone in the top five.Even though Mathieu has won two Super Bowls and made more than $90 million, the safety can’t let that feeling of anger go. He sees reminders all over the place, including when Mathieu returned to Arizona last month for the Saints’ preseason opener against the Cardinals.“These people are still around,” Mathieu says. “I just saw a dude the other day, and he was one of the guys who interviewed me when he was with the Colts. So these guys are still in the league, the dudes that didn’t believe in you, they’re still hanging around here.“Yeah, I keep it close to my chest.”Mathieu clarifies he has nothing against the Colts specifically. They were just one of the teams to pass him over. They all did, even the Saints.The Saints are glad to have him now. This summer, New Orleans searched to find a starter opposite Mathieu. It was a long process, one that involved flirting with then-free agent Justin Simmons (now with Atlanta) and ended with either Jordan Howden or Will Harris seizing the job. Coach Dennis Allen declined to name the starter for Sunday’s season opener against the Carolina Panthers.As the process unfolded, the Saints never had to worry about Mathieu.“I know exactly what I’m getting with Tyrann Mathieu every time he walks in the building; every time he walks onto the practice field; every time he walks onto the game field, I know exactly what I’m getting,” Allen said. “He’s as much as a consistent player as I’ve seen.”They are getting the skill set that Mathieu’s pre-draft profile accurately described. Feisty, turnover machine. Instinctual player with very good read and react ability. Always seems to work his way into position to make his way on the ball. Does whatever it takes to make a stop.Mathieu reads these compliments and isn’t fazed. Part of him feels that scouts “talk out of both sides of their mouth.” The weaknesses, he says, contradict the strengths, and so then what?Mathieu is asked the obvious: Now in Year 12, does he feel like he’s answered the concerns that people had about him?For sure, he says.“But now I’m getting older, so it’s like the clock starts over again,” Mathieu says. “Go back to the basics.‘Alright cool, let me show these motherf***ers I can still do this.’”</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Tyrann Mathieu revisits his pre-draft scouting report a dozen years into his career

Here’s a fun fact about Tyrann Mathieu’s career, one that’s slightly depressing for the New Orleans Saints safety: He has been in the NFL for so long that the New Orleans restaurant that hosted his draft party is no longer open. “I’m getting up there,” he said...

Tyrann Mathieu revisits his pre-draft scouting report a dozen years into his career

Comments / 0