At the start of this week, La’el Collins looked like a sure-thing first-round draft pick. When the 2015 NFL draft concluded today, Collins was undrafted.
NFL teams decided that they simply couldn’t take a chance on Collins, who is scheduled to meet with police on Monday as they investigate the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend. Police have not identified Collins as a suspect, but he hasn’t been exonerated either, and until he is teams do not want anything to do with him.
Collins’s agents asked that he be allowed to enter the supplemental draft this summer, and also said that they’d rather he re-enter the 2016 draft than be a late-round pick this year. But neither of those things will happen. Collins is only eligible to join the NFL as an undrafted free agent, and teams are limited in how much they can pay undrafted free agents. His fall will cost him millions of dollars, even if it turns out that he’s completely innocent.
If Collins is not charged in connection with his ex-girlfriend’s death, he will be perhaps the most sought-after undrafted free agent in NFL history. But right now he has a far more important situation to deal with.