Former Cowboys Longtime Starter Could Sign With Bills: Report
An AFC contender may sign a former Dallas Cowboys starter who started 71 games.
La’el Collins, a free agent offensive tackle, worked out with the Buffalo Bills on Friday, December 29. Collins started 71 of his 74 games with the Cowboys between 2015 and 2021.
Collins would probably be signed after the Bills cut Germain Ifedi on Friday in order to add depth.
How La’el Collins Began Career With Cowboys
The 30-year-old Collins joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2015, his first year in the NFL. Coming out of LSU, the 6-foot-4, 315-pound lineman was a highly anticipated talent. He was named to the Second Team All-American in 2014 and the First and Second Teams All SEC in 2013 and 2014.
Collins was considered a top 10 and first-round selection while the 2015 NFL Draft got underway. The formerly highly anticipated tackle was not selected, though, due to off-field problems including the shooting murder of a pregnant woman he was connected with (Collins was not thought to be a suspect) and his agent’s threat that Collins would not play if he was selected after the third round.
He would then go on to sign a three-year contract worth $1.6 million with the Cowboys. He would quickly emerge as the starting left guard for Dallas during his rookie season before shifting as the starter at right tackle from 2017 until the end of his tenure with the Cowboys at the end of the 2021 season.
La’el Collins Was Once Considered Elite Right Tackle in Dallas
Although Collins never garnered any Pro Bowl or All-Pro selections during his stint with the Cowboys, he emerged as one of the top-graded offensive linemen. According to Pro Football Focus, Collins posted an 86.4 offensive grade and 89.4 run-blocking grade during the 2019 season. Those grades ranked him fourth in offensive grade and third in run-blocking grade among all starting tackles during that season.
Collins followed up that stellar 2019 campaign with a similarly effective 2021 season, posting an 82.0 offensive grade and 89.8 run-blocking grade. He ranked 13th in offensive grade and fourth in run-blocking grade among all tackles during the 2021 season after missing the entire 2020 campaign due to a neck stinger injury suffered in a car accident.
After being granted permission to seek a trade during the 2022 offseason, Collins was released with three years remaining on his deal. The move was largely made due to cost-cutting measures the Cowboys went through in order to clear up space in their salary cap, as Nick Shook of NFL.com noted back in March of 2022.
“The move is clearly a cost-cutting one expected to save Dallas $10 million in what logically should be a post-June 1 designation,” wrote Shook. “The move will further assist the Cowboys in getting in a better financial position after trading Amari Cooper (and his $20 million cap number) to Cleveland and using new cap space to extend Demarcus Lawrence and re-sign Michael Gallup.”
Collins finally signed a contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, where he started the first 15 games he played as right tackle. But in Week 16 of the 2022 season, he tore his ACL and MCL. He was placed on the reserve/PUP list and finally dismissed at the start of the 2023 season.
Collins has made 89 career appearances, starting 86 of them in his seven years in the NFL.
Leave a Reply