CB D.J. Hayden, Houston

Deserves his own thread.

This guy is as good as just about any corner in the Draft. I would probably take Dee Milliner over him. I'm still not sure about Xavier Rhodes and Desmond Trufant. I would take him over every other corner, from a pure talent perspective.

The story on him is that he was a JUCO guy, big time standout at the JUCO level who transferred to University of Houston (he's from Houston) and immediately lit up the C-USA. He got Conference Newcomer of the Year if I recall correctly. He had 66 tackles, 2 interceptions, an amazing 5 forced fumbles, 1 sack, 8.0 TFLs, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 touchdown. He broke up 11 passes.

In 2012 he was looked to as a leader. During a spring ball interview his head coach said he talked individually with every kid on roster and "6 or 8 of them" singled out Hayden as a guy that was a leader for them and had helped them with technique or gone out of his way to show them things.

He played 9 games. He scored 2 more touchdowns, lol. He had 4 interceptions, 61 more tackles, 1 more forced fumble, 8 PBUs and 1.5 TFLs. His tackle total was 5th on the team despite playing 3 fewer games than everyone else. Quinton Patton was a statistical monster. In 2012, Hayden helped him have literally the worst game of his year, 4 catches for 36 yards and 0 TDs.

The tragedy began when he had an accident during a collision at practice in 2012. He got up off the field and saw the trainer, and felt funny. The trainer was asking him questions and he he started to feel cold, and eventually started to black out. It turns out, he tore his inferior vena cava which supplies blood from the lower half of the body to your heart. It is 95% fatal when it happens outside of a hospital setting. He was rushed to the hospital and doctors cracked open his chest and miraculously repaired it.

The injury is obviously a big red flag, but maybe not the red flag people think. I am not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. But I have seen some research on stuff like this that suggests that he's less likely to tear the same vein in the same way because of the way veins heal and accumulate scar tissue. The bigger concern is what they had to do to repair it, which is crack open his sternum. Bruised sternums happen in the NFL. This kind of thing is serious and it can affect players. He wasn't even allowed to break a sweat in his workouts until around time for the NFL Combine. He hasn't been cleared for contact yet although he's been able to train enough to complete a pro day.

Now that the NFL has outlawed runners lowering the crown of their helmet into the bodies of defensive players, I think that's a rule change that actually benefits a guy like this. That was probably the biggest threat to him, someone lowering the boom right into his sternum.

Three weeks ago when I was participating in #MockTwo, because of my trading activities I had a bit of a lull in the middle of the Draft. I picked at pick #74 and didn't pick again until the mid-6th round, 100 picks later at pick #174. When Hayden was still on the board, I ran up to the podium with his name:

People keep asking what players would fit the Dolphins' intended style of defense if they intend to play a lot of zone and quarters. To me, this is one of the few guys that I think not only plays that style, but actually excels and makes plays on the football with the kind of aggressive trigger and read abilities that you need in that style of defense.

Some required film view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J02yDULCkHo (JUCO Highlights)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3QM1-pffFQ (2011 Highlights)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp5VU7e00c0 (2011 Bowl Game)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV5rMIonne0 (2012 Highlights)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DULLKzandYI (2012 UCLA Game)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyJX2QdcqxM (Spring Ball Interview)

This is a guy that I had been comparing to Darius Slay as far as their both being JUCO transfers that made splashes and were destined to have late-momentum because of their being JUCO guys. Darius Slay is gaining a ton of momentum especially after a great Combine showing, and presently the Dolphins might even look at him with pick #42 overall. My argument has been that if D.J. Hayden hadn't suffered the injury, then it would be him right along side Slay gaining a ton of late momentum and potentially going in the 2nd round.

Earlier today, Jim1 posted a great article that I hadn't seen. Evidently scouts are making the same argument.

http://www.chron.com/sports/cougars...-recovery-to-NFL-4363500.php?cmpid=sportshcat

 

The thing about his pro day performance is to think about how long and hard a road he must have traveled just to get there. He couldn't work out during the recovery from the surgery. I read an article right around the Combine that suggested it was only right around then that he got cleared for the first time to break a sweat in his workout. I remember something like him saying when he did it, he was in tears. Football is important to this guy.

He had to gain 25 lbs back that he'd lost in short order. I doubt he could have been training for this pro day as long and strenuously as most guys train for the Combine. He's explosive though so he was able to do well anyway. The 4.33 is about what I see on tape. The 4.40 is just about as good, though.

 

All these years the soap opera character I play on TV has just been PRETENDING to be a doctor.

On the bright side, I am a guy who plays a guy who is pretending to be a doctor on TV.

 

Truthfully I've been talking about Hayden since November....November 26th to be exact. The big challenge with him has been getting your arms wrapped around the severity and implications of the injury. The talent was easy to see. At various points I've thought it made him undraftable, possibly even risking that he drops dead on you one day. But then as we got on I saw more research into it, and it seemed to me that wasn't the case...the veins heal and accumulate scar tissue and then they're less likely to tear than they were prior to the injury. That was a real important point to me because you don't want to put a guy out on the field thinking he could just die. That's so ridiculously tragic and such a moral dilemma even if he wants to take that risk.

 

Did you just have a flashback to a medical school exam?

 

Care to drop a medical opinion about the likelihood of him tearing the vein again, or the football impact of his having had his sternum cracked open in order to repair it?

 

Wouldn't be shocked if he goes in the 2nd round so I don't know how much of a value pick we can get away with on him.

And yeah, the physicality stands out big time. There's a reason he tore that vein. He's fearless about contact. I wouldn't say he's stupid about it, the tearing of the vein is in the end just a total freak occurrence. But he's fearless. Blidi Wreh-Wilson is an example of a guy that I think has a lot of Hayden's length and athleticism, but doesn't play with his fearlessness with respect to his body. Blidi likes to play patty cake with his hands, go low on the tackle, a tuck-n-roll kind of guy.

 

You could say it, but I wouldn't agree.

 

I heard it was a reduced chance. I take it you're a doctor?

 

Super explosive guy. So explosive he exploded his own heart.