He could not have landed in a better spot. We had already heard that PP had taken him under his wings in a way preparing him for the draft. I am happy he ended up there. Now he just needs to make it happen. He will be an impact player in the NFL if he keeps his head on straight and stays away from injury.
This X 1000. He was the most exciting Tiger I've ever seen take the field. I hate the way his career at LSU ended, but I thank him for the great memories.
Agree with everything you mentioned. Keeping his head on straight has been discussed quite a bit but injury could also be a big concern. Or possibly the combination of both (think Josh Hamilton's early career when he got injured and had to rehab away from the team on his own). Tyrann is a physical player but the NFL is a much more physical game than college. He'll have to provide a lot of run support, which will likely require playing through injuries at times. There's a reason guys like Bob Sanders and Polamalu get nicked up so often.
I expected him to fall anywhere from 3-5th round before the draft but I can now see why the Cardinals made sure to get him in the 3rd. Mathieu and agent talked to teams about clauses in his contract such as drug testing, counseling, etc... but they also said he was willing to take no guaranteed money. Damn, that is a steal and a risk I am sure many teams were thinking about who might not have given him a shot. I am in no way saying that a 3rd round pick isn't valuable but this takes a lot of the sting out say something did go wrong.
Bobby Hebert & friend were on the radio today, and when the subject of TM7 as FS for the Cards, came up, they went ecstatic, saying it's a perfect it with the big corners the Cards have, with how TM7 already has his PhD in football as far as football IQ and instincts go, how his ball-hawking and play-making abilities are off-the-charts, etc as for the return game, they said the Cards special teams are going to be unstoppable with PP7 and TM7 both back their returning punts side-by-side, running reserves with each other, etc... and talked about how you talk about directional punting, how you want to kick it to the sideline away from the returner... how are you going to be able to do that with both PP7 and TM7 back there and the range they have?
Now that you posted that I realize that would never be possible because of the advantages I speculated on. I think players have to be slotted a certain amount of guaranteed money based on draft position.
I don't think his size means he lacks physicality. This little dude has smoked Eddie Lacy, he's smoked that big bitch of a tight Alabama had (not much of a shock though considering Eric Reid stole the ball from him while Eric was on his back almost) he bitched Dennis Johnson also and countless others. He will be small but if he can get in the gym and add a little more weight, he will be a little monster.
