National Football League

Report: La'el Collins could go undrafted unless exonerated

Published Apr. 30, 2015 1:21 p.m. ET

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By Andrea Hangst

La’el Collins is considered one of the best offensive line prospects in the 2015 NFL Draft. The former LSU player was expected to go in Rounds 1 or 2, but now that may all change due to a murder investigation that may not even prove to involve him.

Collins’ pregnant ex-girlfriend, Brittany Mills, was shot and killed on April 24 in Baton Rouge, La. Though not a suspect in the murder at this time, Baton Rouge authorities want to meet with Collins to glean any information they can about Mills’ murder and who may have killed her.

On Tuesday, Collins’ attorney Jim Boren told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Collins will meet with Baton Rouge police, saying “We took the investigation seriously. We’ve tried to rule him out as a suspect. We’re going to provide that information to the police, and ultimately [Collins] will sit down and talk to them. But the timing is poor.”

Boren added:

Pro Football Talk reported on Wednesday that Collins would be leaving Chicago, the site of the 2015 draft, to head back to Louisiana to talk to authorities. No date for that meeting has yet been set, though the NFL Network’s Albert Breer reported on Thursday that it will be scheduled for after the draft, which is bad news for Collins’ hopes to get picked up by a team on Thursday—or at all.

Breer also reported that the “lack of closure” on Collins’ role, if any, in the investigation has led to “several teams” staying completely away from drafting Collins this year.

Pro Football Talk’s Josh Alper has heard the same chatter, reporting on Thursday that, “There has been increasing talk in league circles that Collins neither draftable nor employable until/unless he is fully exonerated of any wrongdoing in the matter by law enforcement.”

Alper tries to spin this development into a positive, saying that Collins could have a chance to pick his team should be an undrafted free agent rather than a drafted player. But the timing of this investigation couldn’t have been at a worse time.

Even if Collins was nowhere near the scene of the murder, as his attorney contends, the fact that this matter won’t be resolved until after the draft means this could cost Collins millions of dollars.

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