9:34pm: The Dolphins also have a meeting scheduled with Collins, according to Ben Wallace of The Advocate. Collins is represented by Priority Sports, which is the firm that current Dolphins football operations czar Mike Tannenbaum previously worked for.
8:59pm: Bills coach Rex Ryan met with former LSU tackle La’el Collins Monday night in Baton Rouge, Chad Sabadie of WVUE-Fox 8 tweets. The meeting was not cleared through Collins’ reps, as Adam Schefter and Mike Rodak of ESPN.com write.
Collins, of course, is facing a very uncertain future after his situation caused him to slide out of the first round and the draft altogether. Just days ago, Bills GM Doug Whaley said his club wouldn’t consider Collins as a UDFA, calling the entire situation “too cloudy” right now. Now, it appears that there has been a change in thinking in the Bills’ front office. Or, it’s possible that Ryan is thinking about signing Collins and hoping to convince the rest of Buffalo’s braintrust.
Prior to his murky predicament coming to light, Collins was widely viewed as a player who would come off the board within the top 15 picks. The fact that Collins proceeded to go undrafted on day two is an indicator that teams are wary of taking on character or potential legal risks in the new NFL. Collins might have been taken as a flier on day three, but Collins’ agent threatened a holdout if a team were to do that.
Collins’ camp was hoping to either enter the tackle in this year’ supplemental draft or next year’s NFL draft, but the former request was denied and the latter will not be permitted either.