Keylan Rutledge still keeps the photos of the car wreck in his phone, ready to show anyone who asks to see it.
There, in the pictures, is his burgundy 2007 Nissan Frontier pickup truck — mangled, flipped over on the side of the road, its muddy wheels in the air. The picture was taken in December 2023.
Rutledge, then a highly sought-after transfer from Middle Tennessee State, had just wrapped up a recruiting visit to Georgia Tech in Atlanta before making the two-hour trip up Interstate 85 to Clemson, S.C.
The roads were slippery from the rain when a car ahead of him swerved into his lane. As Rutledge tried to avoid the collision, he swerved and struck another vehicle.
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His truck hydroplaned, flipped several times and landed in a ditch off the side of the interstate several yards away. Rutledge was fortunate to be alive.
He smashed open the front driver’s-side window and army-crawled his 6-foot-3, 315-pound frame from beneath the truck.
After emerging, he looked down at his foot and saw his slides were missing — still lodged into the pedal. His foot hurt, and the sock on his left foot was soaked in blood.
It’s been 2½ years since the accident. Rutledge is now a rookie offensive lineman for the Houston Texans — selected No. 26 overall in the first round of the NFL draft with a chance to become an anchor on the offensive line.
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And he can’t help but think about what could have been and how he almost didn’t make it here.
The aftermath of the wreckage from the December 2023 car crash Texans rookie Keylan Rutledge was involved in.
Courtesy Keylan Rutledge
Facing adversity
Rutledge didn’t grow up in the best circumstances. His parents divorced when he was 6, and his father didn’t stick around, leaving his mother to take care of the family by herself.
“He wasn’t a great dude,” Rutledge said. “Kind of always in and out of trouble. I just don’t respect him. He was never there, so why be there now?”
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Miranda Rutledge tried her best to provide for her family. She worked several odd jobs, but rarely did they pay enough to keep a consistent roof over their heads. Keylan recalls times when he’d return home from school and find the family’s belongings outside because they had been evicted.
They — Keylan, his mom and his sister —bounced from house to house, sometimes sleeping in their car. Other times, they’d stay with his grandmother, Juanita, whom Keylan affectionately calls his “Nana.”
Rutledge never stayed in the same home longer than two years and estimates he attended five or six different middle schools in rural northeast Georgia.
“That was kind of the life I lived,” he said after a recent practice on a hot and humid Tuesday morning in Houston. “You didn’t have no silver spoon. Nothing was given to you.”
Texans rookie offensive lineman Keylan Rutledge, taking a selfie with a young fan. has experienced adversity on his road to the NFL, from his family struggling to make ends meet as a youngster to a car accident that almost ended his football career.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
Houston Texans first-round draft pick Keylan Rutledge rides down a waterslide after a fundraiser activity with the Boys and Girls Club at Great Wolf Lodge in Webster on Thursday, June 18, 2026.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
Houston Texans first-round draft pick Keylan Rutledge, left, along with head coach DeMeco Ryans looks at jersey during press conference about the in Houston Friday, April 24, 2026.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle
Houston Texans first round draft pick Keylan Rutledge prepares to throw a ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Houston Astros at Daikin Park on June 15, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
Houston Astros/Getty Images
Houston Texans guard Keylan Rutledge (66) works with coaches during a rookie mini camp at Houston Methodist Training Center in Houston, Friday, May 8, 2026.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
He used to sell the Little Debbie snacks his mother bought with her EBT card to make extra money at school. That’s how he met his now-wife Lauren.
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They had weightlifting class together at Franklin County High School in Carnesville, Ga. He was a sophomore. She was a junior and a standout on the school’s softball team.
One day, Keylan approached Lauren at the bleachers and asked if she wanted to buy a honey bun.
“Two for a dollar, one for 50 cents,” he told her.
Keylan didn’t know it, but Lauren loved honey buns. She bought two with four quarters. They exchanged numbers, began texting, and a couple of months later, he took her out with the money he saved up selling honey buns.
Lauren was always there for Keylan when he needed her most, whether that meant giving him a ride somewhere or helping him navigate the challenges in his own life — growing up without much, an absent father-figure and anger.
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He admits that when he met Lauren, he was “a hothead.” A couple of weeks after they began dating, he got into a fight with another boy in their weightlifting class.
Lauren kept him grounded, he said, and helped him see there was more to life than what he was doing.
Rutledge couldn’t stand the thought of failing. That’s why he threw himself into sports. He saw athletics as a way out of his circumstances and a path to a better life for himself and his family.
But with Lauren, he didn’t always have to be so intense. They got married last June in a private ceremony.
“She’s definitely the better half of me,” Rutledge says.
Basketball became Keylan Rutledge’s passion in high school and his coach Jason Schaver raved about Rutledge’s prowess on the court.
Courtesy Jason Schaver
Committing to football
Paul Sutherland taught weightlifting at Franklin County High School and coached football there in 2019. One day, Jason Schaver, the school’s basketball coach, walked into Sutherland’s classroom and motioned for him to follow.
“You’ve got to see this kid coming in here in the ninth grade,” Schaver told him.
Sutherland was intrigued.
When he entered the gym, his eyes immediately followed the chubby, red-headed boy, who was just over 6 feet tall. The students were playing a game of pickup basketball, and the chubby kid was as quick, if not quicker than the kids half his size.
“I said, ‘Who is that?’ ” Sutherland recalled, marveling at his ability to move.
The other students called him “Big Red,” but his actual name was Keylan Rutledge.
When Sutherland introduced himself, Rutledge told the coach he was thinking about coming out for football.
He never came out, deciding to focus solely on basketball, which had become his passion.
“If he had been 6-8 or 6-9, he’d be playing for the Rockets, not the Texans,” Schaver said. “He was that good at basketball.”
He led the team in scoring, rebounding and assists. And in the 2021 Georgia high school state playoffs, he went toe-to-toe with current Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. for one half.
“He was super competitive,” assistant basketball coach Josh Bentley said. “He was completely different than anything I had ever seen at the high school level.”
But those coaches also knew his future wasn’t in basketball. He was a 6-3 bruising and undersized power forward.
Sutherland, who was trying to turn around the football program, didn’t give up on convincing Keylan to play. Sutherland, who was also Keylan’s weightlifting teacher, often told him that basketball translated well to football, especially for bigger athletes.
During Keylan’s sophomore year in 2020, he was watching the NFL draft when he had an epiphany. By then, he was 6-3 and weighed about 280 pounds.
He remembers seeing offensive lineman Mekhi Becton get drafted and watching highlights of him dunking a basketball.
Other offensive and defensive linemen being drafted had basketball backgrounds as well.
So Rutledge picked up his phone and called Sutherland.
“Coach, are you watching the draft?” Rutledge asked, pointing out all the offensive linemen being selected who had also played basketball.
“Keylan, I’ve told you for two years the NFL is full of players whose favorite sport is basketball because they’re some of the best athletes in the world,” Sutherland replied. “But there is no demand for 6-3, 6-4 power forwards at the next level.”
“Coach, I’m 110% in. I’m going to play football, and I promise I’m going to give it everything I’ve got,” Rutledge later told him.
Rutledge was a natural and immediately became one of the team’s best players.
But what all of his coaches point to is that not only was he the most talented player on the team, he was also the toughest and hardest-working player they had ever coached.
If the coaches asked the team to do 10 reps, Rutledge was going to do 11. If another player did 11, he was going to do 12.
Rutledge wanted to win at everything.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” he said, struggling to find the words. “It’s just who I am.
“It’s not enough for me to be like, ‘Oh, we won the game and I played really good.’ I’m trying to be perfect.”
College coaches on recruiting visits often told Sutherland they liked Rutledge but didn’t have enough film on him. His first year of varsity football came as a junior.
Sutherland would tell them they didn’t need more film. He was the real deal.
Middle Tennessee was the first Division I program to offer Rutledge a scholarship. Other schools, such as Wake Forest, came in late with offers, but Middle Tennessee had been there from the beginning.
Rutledge repaid that loyalty by committing there.
After not playing varsity football until his junior year of high school, Keylan Rutledge (77) was recruited to play at Middle Tennessee.
Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A spreading infection, then ‘hope and pray’
Rutledge didn’t want to leave Middle Tennessee. He’s as loyal as they come. But head coach Rick Stockstill was fired after a 4-8 season, leaving the program in flux.
The coaches and mentors he trusted encouraged him to enter the transfer portal, which he eventually did.
That’s why he was on a visit to Georgia Tech with Lauren, his mother and sister in December 2023. It’s why he was on the way to visit Clemson next.
That day, Keylan and Lauren drove separately. Keylan dropped off his mother and sister at home before heading to Lauren’s house, where he planned to spend the night before leaving for Clemson the next day.
Lauren arrived first. Then she got a notification from Life360, the location-sharing app, that Keylan’s vehicle had stopped in the middle of the interstate.
Soon after, she received a phone call from an unknown number with an Atlanta area code.
“My heart dropped,” Lauren recalled.
It was Keylan, calling from a bystander’s phone. He told Lauren he had been in a wreck and was shaken up. He couldn’t explain exactly what had happened, only that his foot hurt.
Lauren and her parents raced to the scene, about 10 minutes from her house.
When they arrived, EMS personnel were loading him into an ambulance.
That’s when Lauren saw his foot.
“I just kind of broke down because I know how much football means to him,” she said. “And I knew what was going through his mind — that he can’t play football.”
He suffered an open fracture to his big toe. The bone was protruding through the skin. Several other toes were dislocated and had to be popped back into place.
Keylan underwent surgery the next day, but the toe didn’t heal properly.
Three months later, additional tests revealed an infection in his foot. If it spread and treatment failed, doctors warned they might have to amputate the foot.
“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m going to the NFL. The NFL was calling,’ ” Rutledge said. “And they’re telling me, ‘Hey, you might not have your foot.’
“Well, if you don’t have your foot, you can’t play football. That was kind of the thought.”
Over the next several months, doctors put him on antibiotics and inserted a catheter that delivered IV medication into his body twice a day.
He also underwent a second surgery.
From there, it was simply “hope and pray.”
Eventually, the infection cleared and Rutledge was no longer in danger of losing his foot. Still, doctors weren’t sure whether he’d be able to play football competitively again.
Rutledge refused to accept those doubts. He attacked rehab and never missed a day.
“In my head, I was like, man, I’ve been through so much in my life — what’s this foot going to do?” he said. “I can overcome anything. That’s kind of how my mindset is. You tell me that, I’m going to show you.”
By August, when the season began, he was back on the field — this time at Georgia Tech after never making it to Clemson.
After transferring from Middle Tennessee to Georgia Tech, Keylan Rutledge became a decorated offensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets, putting him on the Texans’ radar.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Wired differently
If you want to know how tough and determined Rutledge is, pull up his profile and look at his game log. He played 13 games during the 2024 season, less than a year after the car wreck that nearly cost him his foot.
“I’m telling you, most people in the country wouldn’t be able to do that,” Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. “I mean, he didn’t miss a snap all season, I believe.”
Key said he and his staff tried to take things slowly, but Rutledge wasn’t interested. He used every opportunity — whether a walkthrough or a padded practice — to improve before the season. It paid off. He was voted a first-team All-American in 2025, his final season at Georgia Tech.
Key says Rutledge is hands-down the best offensive lineman he’s ever coached. His highlight reels often show him driving defenders 15 yards downfield and planting them into the turf. He always plays through the whistle.
That’s why the Texans traded up to select him with the 26th overall pick in April.
When the Texans drafted him, Rutledge wasn’t in the NFL green room. He wasn’t surrounded by a large crowd.
Instead, he spent draft night at an Airbnb in northeast Georgia with his immediate family.
After getting the call from the Texans, he thought about everything he had been through. “It’s God,” he said. “But it’s also me being who I am, how I’m wired, how competitive I am and how much I love the game.”
From growing up in rural northeast Georgia with a single mother, moving from house to house; Being overlooked by recruiters; to playing Division I football; surviving a car accident and nearly losing his foot; To recovering and becoming an All-American; to now becoming a first-round draft pick and reaching the NFL to play for the Texans, it was all part of his journey.