All eyes on Tyrann Mathieu as Cardinals to release former All Pro safety

Just two years after the Cardinals made Tyrann Mathieu the NFL’s highest paid safety, they realized they overextended themselves. The Honey Badger was asked to take a paycut, he declined, and the team has notified him he will be released according to FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer.

Mathieu is going to be as hot a commodity as they come. The 25-year-old safety was an All Pro in 2015 and led the NFL in snaps last season. Dude never left the damn field, which tells you how valuable he was to the Cardinals’ defense which was also on the field a lot.

Honey Badger was a highly touted cornerback out of LSU in 2013 who fell to the third round due to concerns about his having popped positive for marijuana a few times in college. The Cardinals took a chance and it has paid off.

Though the Raiders will undoubtedly be interested in Mathieu, whether they will be able to afford him in another story altogether. Especially in a market that just saw Trumaine Johnson land a deal that pays him $15 million a season. The Raiders bowed out of that bidding war because it got too rich for their blood. Mathieu is far more established and is a cap casualty in the truest sense. He’s gonna get paid.