ESPN analyst: Mathieu not worth the risk, poor teammate
Apr 27, 2013, 5:46 PM | Updated: Apr 28, 2013, 2:21 pm
Tyrann Mathieu’s mistakes at LSU were well-publicized, but not enough to scare away the Arizona Cardinals Friday night.
Following general manager Steve Keim’s decision to take the former Heisman Trophy finalist with the No. 69 pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, not everyone was excited by the Cardinals’ “calculated risk.”
ESPN analyst Bill Polian, a former NFL executive with the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts, was asked what he thought of the Cardinals’ selection Friday night, and he didn’t exactly hold back.
“In a word, no,” Polian said when asked if Mathieu was worth the risk. “This is a nickelback and a return man who has a deficiency covering man-to-man, who is speed deficient. On top of that, he’s proven to be irresponsible and continues in my mind to show some degree of irresponsibility.
“That makes him a poor teammate and a poor risk. I don’t know why you’d want him at any price, but if you were going to take a chance on him it certainly wouldn’t be tonight.”
When asked if he would have taken a chance on Mathieu during the draft’s final few rounds were he still an executive in the league, Polian once again was definitive.
“We would have taken him off the board,” said Polian. “Based on our philosophy, we didn’t want a player of this level of irresponsibility and this level of disrespect for his teammates and his team.”
Well, it doesn’t look like Keim and Polian will see eye-to-eye on this one.
