D.
J. Hayden.
D.
J. Hayden.
Houston· 5'11"· 191 lb· 4.40s 40
Hayden projects into a Cover-3 match scheme that prioritizes long and speedy corners capable of playing press or off-coverage on the boundary.
He can contribute immediately as an outside boundary corner and projects as a long-term starter capable of shadowing top receivers.
A scheme that asks him to play exclusively in the slot, away from boundary matchups, diminishes his value.
His fluid athleticism and recovery speed are highly desirable for teams running a primarily zone-based Cover 3 or Cover 4 system allowing for big-play prevention.
Selected #12 overall in Round 1 of the 2013 NFL Draft by Oakland Raiders out of Houston.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.40sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Houston | 13 | 66 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
| 2012 | Houston | 9 | 61 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Career | — | 22 | 127 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 6 |
Parsed from Sports-Reference CFB career page via Firecrawl.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
D.J. Hayden played cornerback for the Raiders, Lions, Jaguars, and Commanders. He was a rotational and sometimes starting defensive back, often battling injuries.
Data note: from Miami