Heading into the 2016 NFL Draft, Laremy Tunsil was being projected as a potential No. 1 pick.

Nobody believed he had any chance of falling past the Baltimore Ravens with the sixth selection.

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Tunsil has shaken off the incident to become one of the league’s best tackles[/caption]

But then his Twitter account was hacked and a video posted on it sparked one of the most dramatic slides since Aaron Rodgers in 2025.

Tunsil was in the draft‘s green room with his family when his phone began to buzz.

“I just picked my phone up to see what time it was,” the left tackle out of Ole Miss told ESPN. “It was comments from everybody. So when I saw it, I just put it down.”

His agent, Jimmy Sexton, soon informed him of the hack and he realized that a video of him wearing a black gas mask and smoking marijuana had been posted.

“I was panicking a little bit, and I’m just like, ‘Don’t let my mom and my auntie see this,’” Tunsil said. “How can we get this cleaned up and remove this as fast as possible?”

By the time he had managed to get back into his account and delete the post the draft had started. And the damage was done.

Once regarded as a nailed-on top-10 pick, Tunsil ended up in Miami as the Dolphins got a lucky break with the 13th selection they held after trading back from eighth.

The slide ended up costing Tunsil around $8million after Ronnie Stanley signed a four-year $20.48 million rookie deal in Baltimore.

Adam Schefter revealed after the event that the Ravens would have selected him over Stanley if the video hadn’t surfaced.

It also gave him all the motivation he needed to embark on a record-breaking career that could end up in the Hall of Fame.

“To this day, I still have that chip on my shoulder just to prove everybody wrong,” he told ESPN. “It just showed everyone I do make mistakes, but that’s not who I am,

“So that was just one part of the journey. But I want the gold jacket. I want to be known as one of the best ever.”

Tunsil was emerging as a real force after three seasons in Miami and the Houston Texans came calling in a blockbuster trade that sent two first-round picks, a second-round pick, Johnson Bademosi, and Julien Davenport to the Dolphins for the lineman, Kenny Stills, and a fourth-rounder.

He made the Pro Bowl and signed a three-year extension worth $66million that smashed the record for an offensive lineman in 2020.

“My first three years, it was heavy on my heart. Like, damn, I can’t believe I went through that,” Tunsil said. “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.”

Putting the nightmare Draft behind him, the 30-year-old made four more Pro Bowls in Houston and his three-year, $75million extension set the market again in 2023.

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Since then, he has been passed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers standout Tristan Wirfs ($28.1million), Detroit Lions star Penei Sewell ($28million, San Francisco 49ers beast Trent Williams: ($27.6million) and Minnesota Vikings keystone Christian Darrisaw ($26million).

The Washington Commanders swooped for Tunsil over the offseason as they look to keep electric quarterback Jayden Daniels‘ jersey clean after an incredible rookie season.

Giving up third-round and seventh-round picks in 2025 and second and fourth-round selections in 2026 could prove to be a shrewd move.

Tunsil has over $120million in career earnings and still has time to reset the market for a third time with his current deal up in two years.

Ahead of the 2022 Draft, he fully removed the chip from his shoulder when he minted the picture of him smoking out of the gas mask into a non-fungible token (NFT).

Some of the proceeds went to the Last Prisoner Project — which offers support to those incarcerated for cannabis offenses.

“It just showed everyone I do make mistakes, but that’s not who I am,” Tunsil said. “So that was just one part of the journey.

“I don’t really just look at it crazy. It’s always going to be attached to me. When my son gets a little older, I got to tell him what happened. But it didn’t slow me down.”

As for the future, the superstar still has one major point to prove.

“I want the gold jacket,” Tunsil said. “I want to be known as one of the best ever.

“I just want something to show for it once I’m done. I would love to have a statue in Canton, Ohio.”

A Super Bowl ring would boost his case significantly.

The Commanders fell to the eventual world champion Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game last season.

An addition like Tunsil could be the final piece of the jigsaw for both a player and franchise looking to shake off the past and build a new identity.

Tonight sees one of the most unique events in world sport get underway, as the 2025 NFL Draft kicks off in Green Bay, and you can hear the first round in full, exclusively on talkSPORT2 and on the talkSPORT Endzone YouTube Channel with the first pick made from 1am. 

Join our NFL host Will Gavin and draft expert Dom Corbett as they bring you every single pick, trade and moment of drama live! 

Our build up starts from 11pm on talkSPORT 2 and you’ll also be able to see our team give their verdict on every pick made with a live watchalong over on the talkSPORT Endzone Youtube Channel from 12.30!