Undrafted La'el Collins targeted by several NFL teams

Glenn Guilbeau | USA TODAY Sports

BATON ROUGE – Just hours after exiting interrogation by Baton Rouge Police conducting a double murder investigation and remaining a non-suspect, former LSU offensive tackle La'el Collins became a free agent target by several NFL teams.

"He is starting to set up interviews," NFL draft expert Mike Detillier of WWL Radio in New Orleans said Monday night.

And later Monday night, Collins dined with Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan at Ruffino's Italian restaurant in Baton Rouge, according to an employee of the restaurant.

Among the other teams likely interested in Colllins are the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints and others like them who showed interest entering the NFL draft last week when Collins was considered a top 15 pick of the first round. That was before a story by ESPN's Adam Schefter on April 28 – two days before the draft - said Baton Rouge Police were wanting to speak to Collins in connection with an investigation into the shooting death of a pregnant former girlfriend of Collins.

Brittney Mills was murdered in her apartment on April 24 while eight months pregnant. Her baby son was born at Baton Rouge General on Bluebonnet Boulevard later Friday night after she had passed away at 29. The baby, Brenton Dalon Mills, died on May 1. Baton Rouge Police released no information Monday on a paternity test it has requested Collins, 21, to take.

Collins fell completely out of the seventh round of the NFL draft that included 256 selections from Thursday through Saturday. Collins was to meet with the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday, according to a report by the Baton Rouge Advocate using an unnamed source.

The Saints worked out Collins at LSU's Pro Day in late March and took him out to dinner. Coach Sean Payton expressed interest in Collins during the draft over the weekend, but said he was hesitant to pick him as he figured other teams were as well because of the recent news.

"We had a really good grade on Collins," Payton said Thursday night. "Teams are projecting him at tackle and guard, and our projection with him is as a guard. I think he's a very dominant player, physical."

Payton identified guard as a need for the Saints entering the draft, and Collins is built more like a guard at 6-foot-4 and 308 pounds. He played left guard as a sophomore at LSU in 2012 before starting his last two seasons at left tackle. The Saints took offensive tackle Andrus Peat of Stanford with the 13th pick of the first round and drafted no guards or offensive linemen.

New Orleans did sign two undrafted free agent guards on Monday afternoon – Doniel Gambrell (6-6, 315) of Notre Dame and Cyril Lemon (6-3, 315) of North Texas and an offensive tackle in Sean Hickey (6-6, 306) of Syracuse."

"If we were just looking at the grade of the player, he did a lot of good things for LSU," Payton said of Collins on Saturday. "There's an interest in any young offensive lineman."

Collins would have made approximately a $4 million signing bonus as a top 15 pick. As an undrafted free agent, he will make a minimal signing bonus as NFL teams have only about $90,000 to spend on all free agent signing bonuses, according to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the NFL Players Association has with the NFL.

But an NFL team could guarantee Collins a guaranteed salary of more than $1.5 million based on the three-year mandated contract for undrafted free agents of $435,000 the first year, following by $525,000 and then $615,000.

"For Collins, that presents an opportunity to attempt to receive a three-year guarantee of $1,575,000," wrote NFL salary expert Jason Fitzgerald Sunday on his Over The Cap website. "That guarantee would be equivalent to a late second rounder's guarantee through his signing bonus and salary guarantee."

If Collins plays well in his first two seasons, he could opt out of the third year of his contract and get a much more lucrative extension.

"I doubt a team would be willing to make that ($1,575,000) investment now," Fitzgerald wrote. "But if Collins waits until the summer to sign, they might if his name is cleared."

Guilbeau writes for Gannett Louisiana