Innocent question?

Dave Hyde looks at La’el Collins issue.

DAVIE — I don’t know if this too insensitive to be reasonable or too reasonable to be insensitive, but here goes:

Are the Dolphins ready if La’el Collins is innocent?

There’s no precedent to the draft emotion that ran like an electric current through this draft regarding Collins. It was fear. So much understandable fear. So much that even as the final players being drafted had all the odds of a bouncing ball on a roulette wheel, fear won out.

Collins remained undrafted. A week ago, he was mentioned as a Dolphins possibility with their first-round pick, if he even lasted to that 14th pick overall slot.

Collins’ pending interview with police regarding the killing of a former girlfriend made him so toxic no team would draft him. Police say they have no suspects. Collins’ attorney claims to have evidence the player was out of town during the slaying.

The Dolphins, like all teams, wait on the sidelines. The homicide investigation was only part of the fear over Collins, too. After all, using a seventh-round pick on a top-15 talent would seem like a good risk-to-football-reward, even given the horror his name is tangled inside.

The more practical and immediate fear, the one saying even a low-round draft pick was too expensive for Collins, had nothing to do with football and everything to do with the NFL’s image.

No team wanted to be the target of talk shows, national debates and loud headlines involving murder and morality. No team even seems ready to sign him as an undrafted free agent with his future in question.

The stings of recent issues have changed the thinking. Ray Rice’s domestic abuse case from Baltimore. Former Patriot Aaron

Hernandez’s murder trial. Even the black-eye of Bullygate for the Dolphins.

But what if Collins is exonerated? What if he really wasn’t involved as his attorney says? Collins will get his name back in some form, but he’ll never get back his lofty draft status or an accompanying paycheck of about $4 million.

This draft money is gone. Collins can’t enter next year’s draft, the league ruled. So his options are:

1. Playing in Canada for a year, making a salary around six figures, but becoming a free agent to cash in with the NFL.

2. Signing the requisite three-year deal with an NFL team as an undrafted free agent that starts the first year at $435,000 and allows him to be a restricted free agent after two years.

If Collins opts for the NFL, the Dolphins have some major selling points. The state has no income tax, as teams have proclaimed for years. Dolphins vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum loudly proclaimed it with a smile again last week.

The Dolphins also are desperate for guards. They have no proven starter and drafted Arizona State’s Jamil Douglas in the fourth round on Saturday. Maybe he can help this year. That’s all the further you can go right now.

Collins, the football player, is as sure a thing as there is in the draft. His talent isn’t the question. His availability is. Other teams would be lining up for him if he is found in- nocent.

Once upon a time, NFL teams would have taken a shot at Collins even given his legal questions. It would have caused discussion, just as Cecil Collins or Lawrence Phillips did upon their arrival with legal baggage to the Dolphins two decades ago.

The Dolphins, of all teams, could have taken a flyer on Collins in this draft with one of their four, fifthround picks. They joined every team in saying the issue was too hot.

General Manager Dennis Hickey refused to say if Collins’ name was taken off the draft board, meaning they wouldn’t even consider him. It was a good draft for the Dolphins in the same manner every team considered it the same.

They got the offensive playmaker in Parker in the first round. They took a chance on talent with defensive tackle Jordan Phillips in the second round. Running back Jay Ajayi upgrades that position.

Besides each team gaining hope, the constant to this draft was Collins’ name going uncalled. Maybe he’s implicated in this murder, in which case his football status is the least of his worries.

But if he’s not guilty? He’s a player the Dolphins could use. The decision, and the plan, should be formulating already.

Once upon a time, NFL teams would have taken a shot at Collins.