The Dolphins have said both privately and publicly that there were no concerns prior to the draft about tackle Laremy Tunsil’s ankle. There also were no private or public concerns about Tunsil’s ankle among league insiders before the draft.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, no issues were raised directly or indirectly about Tunsil’s ankle in the weeks and months before the draft. At a time when every inch of every player’s body and background is poked and prodded, if there was a problem with Tunsil’s ankle, somebody would have said something to Tunsil or those who represent his interests before the draft. That simply didn’t happen.
It’s possibly happening now, as pointed out last night, because one or more teams who passed on Tunsil are now having regrets about the decision. On one hand, the Dolphins may have been picking at the spot in round one (No. 13) where the need for a left tackle intersected with the availability of sufficient time to process the gas-mask-and-bong-video that emerged not long before the draft. On the other hand, the teams that passed on Tunsil could have quickly come to the conclusion that plenty of guys smoke weed, and that video evidence of Tunsil doing it shouldn’t matter.
So if Tunsil becomes a great player, those who passed on him will need to be able to point to something more tangible than a cloud of smoke as the reason for not taking him. And now those seeds have been planted, with the news that Tunsil has a pre-arthritic condition in his ankle.
Even if he doesn’t.