National Football League

Report: Mays says Carroll not honest

Published Apr. 24, 2010 2:33 a.m. ET

foxsports

So much for those old college ties.

When it came time to select a safety in the first round of the NFL draft, new Seahawks coach Pete Carroll went with Texas' Earl Thomas. Carroll passed up the star safety from his USC team last season, Taylor Mays.

That left Mays feeling his former coach may have less than truthful with him, according to the Sacramento Bee website.

Mays told the Bee: "I definitely thought from the relationship we had, the things that he had told me about what I needed to be aware of with the draft process and things that I needed to do, I felt he told me the complete opposite of the actions that he took, which was definitely -- it was alarming. ... I understand it's a business. But with it being a business, he needs to be honest. And that's all I was asking for."

Mays said Carroll told him "I didn't have anything to worry about, that my game was OK, that my backpedaling was fine ... my tackling was fine. It was all things that I asked -- what I needed to work on, what I needed to show. I was kind of led to think that I was going to be OK."

Mays was selected by the 49ers in the second round, with the 49th overall pick. But Mays said he's No. 1 in the draft in at least one way: "I've probably got the biggest chip on my shoulder out of anybody in the draft."