Before La’el Collins inked a deal with the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday, his former coach threw support behind him publicly.
LSU coach Les Miles, who lobbied for Collins to be allowed to enter the supplemental draft in July, said he wanted to see the offensive lineman get paid.
“What I would like to see is a guy — who’s really performed well for our team and has given us great leadership who has continued to raise his market level heading toward draft day — be given just and fair market value,” Miles said Thursday, per Ross Dellenger of The Advocate. “Should he have been put in the supplemental draft, he’d make somewhere between $2-8 million more money.”
From a talent standpoint, Collins was not given anything close to market value. He signed a three-year contract with the Cowboys that is worth $1.65 million in total — all of which is fully guaranteed. As an undrafted free agent, Collins has the option of reworking his contract after two seasons as opposed to three if he was drafted.
Miles said he tried to get ahold of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell but didn’t have any luck.
“It’s a guy who’s afraid to make a precedent of throwing a guy, who plummets based on a reason, to a supplemental draft,” he said. “But why wouldn’t that be what (the supplemental draft) is for? Explain to me why that’s not perfect for this?”
Collins was a consensus first-round pick until police detectives in Baton Rouge wanted to talk to him about the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend. A DNA test determined that Collins was not the father of 29-year-old Brittney Mills’ unborn child, and Collins has never been named as a suspect in the shooting death.
With all that has gone on in the NFL over the past few seasons, teams simply aren’t willing to take a risk on players who are carrying baggage. That said, the dinner Collins had with this NFL coach proved there was plenty of interest in him. He’ll just have plenty to prove if he wants to get paid the way Miles was referring to.
Photo: La’el Collins/Twitter
