Sports

Houston’s Hayden may be 1st CB in Draft

D.j. Hayden came within minutes of dying six months ago.

Next Thursday night, the University of Houston prospect could very well hear his name as the first cornerback selected in the NFL Draft.

Human-interest stories don’t get much more compelling than that.

The fact Hayden is still among the living is amazing, considering how close he came to bleeding to death last November after taking an accidental knee to the chest during a padded practice.

The impact sheared a valve off the back of Hayden’s heart, a truly freakish injury that would have caused him to bleed to death if not for the quick thinking of the school’s athletic trainer and immediate surgery at one of Houston’s top-notch hospitals.

That probably would have been the end of the story for most people, at least football-wise, but Hayden has decided to stick with the sport and is seeing his draft stock zoom in recent weeks after being given the medical OK.

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock surprised observers yesterday by listing the 5-foot-10, 191-pound Hayden as his top cornerback and projecting the first-team All-Conference USA pick to go as high as 10th overall to the Titans.

Hayden also is helped by the fact scouts are down on this year’s cornerback crop in general, with none expected to go in the top 10.

Many teams in the top half of the first round also are souring on the previous top prospect, Alabama’s Dee Milliner, because of concerns about his speed and relative inexperience with press coverage.

The fact that so few corners are projected for the first round (Washington’s Desmond Trufant and Xavier Rhodes of Florida State are other top candidates) speaks volumes because the position has become so valuable with three- and four-receiver sets now common.

Hayden being the first corner taken would be an upset — not to mention make for some interesting TV, considering he wasn’t among the 23 players who accepted invitations to attend the draft in person.

* Wonderlic test scores, always a source of heated controversy between analysts who value them and those who think they’re worthless, are starting to leak out.

The scouts who value those scores reportedly are alarmed with Tennessee wide receiver Cordarelle Patterson, who had been (and still is, in many quarters) the top-rated prospect at his position until it was revealed by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he had posted a woeful 11 out of 50 on the test.

Even worse, the second-rated wideout — speedy West Virginia slot receiver and return ace Tavon Austin — reportedly scored a 7.

A good score for a receiver now that passing offenses have gotten so complex is in the 20s.

Will those scores come back to haunt them next week? Doubtful, because not every team puts a ton of stock in the Wonderlic and it only takes one with a glaring need to make you a first-rounder.

But whether the skeptics like it or not, know that many clubs value the Wonderlic greatly at positions requiring quick thinkers or intricate schemes.

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Rutgers wide receiver Mark Harrison is embroiled in a stinky situation after being linked with a hotel room at the scouting combine that was so trashed that it’s setting off alarm bells among scouts.

According to ESPN, Harrison and Clemson wideout DeAndre Hopkins were registered to the room that was found by maids after they left covered in feces, urine and trash.

The story has been circulating among dismayed NFL scouting departments ever since, though the agents for both players immediately and strongly denied their clients were responsible for the disgusting mess.