Former Dolphins draft bust takes accountability for struggles
· Yahoo Sports
In 2013, the Miami Dolphins traded picks Nos. 12 and 42 to the Oakland Raiders to move up to No. 3 and select Oregon defensive end Dion Jordan, whom the team was hoping would be a generational talent on the edge.
Instead, Jordan struggled as a rookie, recording just 26 tackles, five quarterback hits, two sacks and two passes defensed in 16 games. His performance led to questions about his future after just one year, and from there, it got worse.
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“I wasn’t playing free,” Jordan said in a recent interview with "The Athletic." “I was in my head too much. You feel me? And then it affected my body... “I started playing the victim card. It was ‘why me?’ So I’m gonna drink more because I can’t get in trouble for drinking. And then there were party drugs... I should have been focusing on what it is to be a pro. I didn’t know how to structure myself, how to be disciplined.”
A failed test for a muscle relaxant turned to excessive drinking and then to MDMA, which resulted in a four-game suspension to start his second season. He failed another test, this time for marijuana, which got him another two games before he even saw the field in 2014.
Jordan missed the entire 2015 season due to suspension for a diluted sample. When he tried to come back for 2016, he suffered an injury that kept him from playing for a second straight year.
After Miami cut Jordan in 2017, he had a two-year stint with the Seattle Seahawks, where he played in just 17 games due to injury. Then, in the 2019 offseason, he was suspended for another 10 games for Adderall.
“A dumb, dumb mistake,” Jordan said. “It was trying to find a way around hard work to get what I wanted out of football because my body was essentially not allowing me to do what I wanted to do.”
Jordan had a couple of short stays with the Raiders and San Francisco 49ers before retiring.
“I was pushing myself mentally and physically really hard and got to the point where I didn’t want to keep putting myself through some of that,” Jordan said. “I was like, ‘I want to breathe.’”
Now, Jordan has rebuilt his life and has begun a coaching career. Former Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks hired Jordan as an assistant at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, in 2024.
“He cares, he knows football, and he has life experience,” Starks said about Jordan. “Just because you haven’t done everything right your whole life doesn’t mean you can’t be a good coach. In fact, if you haven’t done everything right, you probably can reach somebody that someone with a cleaner track record can’t.”
Starks left Eureka in February to coach at Maryland, and Jordan was hired to replace him as Eureka's head coach.
From draft bust to head coach of a Division III college team. It's been a journey for Jordan, but he seems ready for his next challenge.
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This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Former Dolphins draft bust takes accountability for struggles