Regarded as one of the top players in the entire draft class, former Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil fell out of the top 10 into the lap of Miami. Not being viewed as a team with offensive tackle as a primary need, the Dolphins embodied the draft strategy of taking the best player available and possibly the best player on their board to begin with regardless of positional need.
By: Christian Page
When an occurrence like this takes place, many evaluators go back and quickly scan their notes to see if they overlooked some flaw that became a bright red flag on draft day to many teams picking in the first round. Turns out that possibly the reason Tunsil managed to slip out of the top 10 was because of something that happened just minutes before the commissioner officially announced the Los Angeles Rams were on the clock.
A string of pictures and videos posted directly from Tunsil’s Twitter account quickly became a trending topic on draft night. The pictures indicated that he was spotted smoking marijuana, though, we don’t know when this picture was taken, but the timeliness is not the biggest issue. Having to break the news on national television didn’t come across anything but uncomfortable for those having to unravel the incident and almost devaluing a player right before our eyes and his.
Quickly knowing that all 32 teams were aware of this action, Tunsil’s fate became a big question mark before the draft even began. Seeing offensive tackles Ronnie Stanley and Jack Conklin selected before the all-star caliber tackle, it wasn’t a secret anymore that Tunsil was going to take a big hit from his former projection at first overall to the Tennessee Titans.
Tunsil has dealt with a plethora of interesting issues at and after his time spent at Ole Miss most recently, before the Twitter picture, being possibly sued by his stepfather for an assault incident. Having some knowledge of the story, the incident with his stepfather can most likely be justified and that may not be something NFL teams viewed as a big enough reason to take him off their draft board. Just recently reaching the surface, Tunsil has been quoted saying he asked a former coach for money. Regardless of the NCAA investigation, if any at all from here on out, Tunsil’s integrity and overall character does not speak high volumes after learning from these non-typical events.
Tunsil’s plummet wasn’t as big of surprise after hearing multiple murmurs before the draft that he could be in for a ride if falling past Baltimore at pick six. Not knowing of a potential past of marijuana usage issues, Tunsil’s durability and experience came across as the biggest concerns regarding his draft stock. Tunsil only played in 28 games over a stretch of three seasons because of suspension or a trend of injuries.
Not shying away from the unfortunate string of events that occurred on one of the highlight events in any football player’s life, Tunsil owned up to the mistakes he made from years ago serving to the honesty is the best policy cliché to the best of his ability. Not knowing whether that type of integrity and honesty gave Miami a little more comfort in this selection but regardless there will be plenty of upcoming situations the team will have to analyze and fix to get the number one overall player on the field and playing at a high level again.
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