Rueben Bain Jr. was involved in a car crash in 2024. Will it affect his draft stock?
It’s a tale as old as time.
In the weeks ahead of the NFL Draft, information gets leaked — more often than not intentionally. Players see their draft stock drop. And teams get a top-rated prospect far lower than originally expected.
From Dan Marino to Randy Moss to Laremy Tunsil, players have consistently had their stock affected in the lead-up to the NFL Draft. Whether it’s the resurfacing of old stories or incidents near the actual draft date, it’s something that has occurred for decades across all professional sports.
This most recently happened to Miami Hurricanes star edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr., who was the driver in a 2024 car crash that eventually led to a passenger’s death. Although Bain’s careless driving charge was later dropped and the victim’s family wished him well, news of the crash broke Sunday. It remains to be seen how this will affect the consensus top-10 pick’s draft stock yet many people in NFL circles, such as Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes, have long since known about the incident.
“We’ve known that for a while so that doesn’t really change anything from our standpoint,” Holmes said Monday.
The Miami Dolphins are no stranger to the benefits of this process. In 1983, the Dolphins were able to draft kid out of Pitt by the name of Dan Marino with the No. 27 pick in large part due to the rumor mill. The reason: a piece of gossip that Marino loved partying and even dabbled with drugs.
“People absolutely looked at it that there was a group of guys on the Panthers that just had too good a time,” Marino’s agent Marvin Demoff told Bleacher Report in 2015. “It was never about addiction.”
These rumors, however, were unsubstantiated, and it’s unclear where they originated. That, coupled with Marino’s subpar senior season, caused him to slip considerably in the draft as he was the sixth quarterback selected behind John Elway (No. 1), Todd Blackledge (No. 7), Jim Kelly (No. 14), Tony Eason (No. 15) and Ken O’Brien (No. 24).
Fast-forward 15 years to the 1998 draft and by far the most polarizing prospect was Randy Moss. After two stellar seasons at Marshall in which he racked up 168 catches for 3,511 yards and 54 touchdowns, Moss should’ve been the first receiver taken. That, however, wasn’t the case as Moss didn’t attend the NFL Combine and had two incidents — a fight caused by a racial slur in 1995 that ended with the West Virginia native serving 30 days of jail time for misdemeanor battery charges as well as a positive marijuana test in 1996 while still on probation — that had many teams skeptical.
Instead, Moss slid to the Minnesota Vikings which selected him No. 21 overall. How he made it past the Cincinnati Bengals, which had two picks in the first round, still stands as mystery considering that their former wide receiver coach John Garrett made sure to do his due diligence at Moss’ legendary Pro Day.
“There’re a lot of talented players, but they don’t have the right makeup,” Garrett told The Athletic, explaining that people “get seduced by talent.” Garrett decided to find somebody without anybody to gain from Moss’ selection. “I talked to the equipment guy or the maintenance guy. I asked, “How’s Randy?” He goes, “He’s awesome. He helps me pick up all the tape and stuff that everybody just throws on the ground and puts it in the trash.” That proved to me, with all the distractions, that he has a good heart.”
Since then, there have been a few similar instances. There was Vontaze Burfict in 2012, who not only reportedly told teams of his marijuana usage but also didn’t pass the drug test at the Combine, according to CBS Sports. Burfict, whose 5.09 40-yard dash and 16-time bench press on top of the existent character concerns further decimated his draft chances, went from one of the top linebacker prospects to being undrafted and eventually signing with the Bengals.
There was also Reuben Foster in 2017, who was sent home from the Combine after he got into a “heated altercation” with a staffer, per ESPN. Another top linebacker prospect, Foster slid slightly yet was still picked in the first round – albeit at No. 31.
Then there was also Jalen Carter, one of the best defensive line prospects of the 2023 draft. Similar to Bain, Carter was charged with reckless driving and racing for his involvement in a January 2023 crash that led to the death of Georgia teammate Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy. Carter would later plead no contest before being sentenced to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and 80 hours of community service.
After significant research and some extra work on Carter’s part, the Philadelphia Eagles would eventually pick him No. 9 overall. Of course Carter’s on-field prowess made the selection easy but more than that, the Eagles believed in the people inside their building.
“We feel like we have really good people in this building,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman told ESPN. “We have really good support staff. We have really good players who are good people. We have really good coaches. We felt like it was a good fit for us.”
No incident, however, could compare to what happened to Laremy Tunsil ahead of the 2016 draft. A projected top-five pick, Tunsil had his Twitter hacked on draft night and a video of the former Ole Miss standout using a black gas mask to smoke marijuana began to circulate on social media.
As a result, Tunsil slid to the Dolphins at No. 9. Several teams told ESPN that the video directly affected their decision to not draft the tackle.
“The video definitely played a role in the discussion,” a former Baltimore Ravens league source said. “In a process as lengthy and complex as this, with so many layers involved, we only had a few minutes to reach a decision as an organization.”
As the time went by, Tunsil has grown more comfortable with what happened on draft night. Still, it used to really upset him.
“My first three years, it was heavy on my heart. Like, ‘damn, I can’t believe I went through that,’” Tunsil told ESPN. “I used to have teammates make fun of me and that’d bother me even though I would laugh. I was always dealing with fans in the stands with gas masks.”
In Bain’s case, it will be worthwhile to see if the star edge rusher’s stock will slip. The Miami native has already faced intense criticism for his short arm length. If Bain does experience a draft-day slide, he could end up with the Dolphins who hold pick No. 11.
