La’el Collins‘ first post-Cowboys visit will be in Cincinnati. The Bengals will host the veteran right tackle, according to Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Collins is flying to Ohio tonight, with the visit set for Friday, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio and The Athletic’s Jeff Howe (Twitter links).
As expected, the Bengals have been active in attempting to repair their beleaguered offensive line this week. They have signed interior blockers Alex Cappa and Ted Karras. Collins checks in with a slightly higher profile than both and would certainly be an upgrade for the defending AFC champions at right tackle.
Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollack was Collins’ first NFL position coach, being with Dallas from 2015-17. Pollack’s position group has been under siege for multiple seasons, with the Bengals having seen Joe Burrow suffer a torn ACL and lead the NFL in sacks taken last season. The Bengals have Jonah Williams set to return at left tackle, but the team has operated with a purpose this week — after not devoting much in the way of resources to Burrow’s first two O-lines — to upgrade other areas up front.
Collins has been regarded as one of the NFL’s best right tackles for a few years now, but the former high-end prospect-turned-UDFA has not been consistently available during the 2020s. After missing all of the 2020 season due to injury, Collins saw a PED suspension shelve him for five games last year. Still, he came back and regained his job, making 10 starts for the NFC East champion Cowboys. Collins, however, only missed one game from 2017-19.
Dallas cut Collins for financial reasons, with the team’s longtime right tackle following Amari Cooper off the team’s payroll. The Bengals making this signing would nearly complete their O-line overhaul. Burrow, per The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., is helping recruit Collins, who is also an LSU alum (Twitter link).
If the Bengals cannot close a deal with Collins on his visit, the Patriots and Dolphins have interest, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. The Dolphins have already signed ex-Cowboy guard Connor Williams but have needs across their line. The Patriots lost Karras and traded Shaq Mason, and the team may lose right tackle Trent Brown as well.
Well there’s an easy match. But also, if something isn’t really wrong here, why wouldn’t someone trade a mid round pick for the 3 years $30 million that was left on his deal?
The Bengals have to believe they can get him signed for significantly less than $10M/year.
If they don’t, and he winds up somewhere else, it will have been a major misstep.
We’ll see…
He’s probably a 7 million a year plus incentives if he’s healthy.
It was better for the team and the player to be released unless it was a really nice pick.
The cowboys would have to eat his cap hit this year if they trade him. They want cap space OR a good return. By releasing him, they are off the hook for all but 1.7m of his cap hit. It’s not as simple as ‘the Bengals think he’s worth less’ or some crap. He will get more than 3 and 30 on the open market and cincy knows that
Plenty of red flags with this guy. Bengals MUST find a good starting RT. Would be great if he worked out. However, if they kick the tires and decide it’s not a fit..I’ll totally trust their judgement.
I agree today on their “ judgement” 5 years ago … not so much
Signed
Pac-Man
You mean All Pro Pacman? Dude was a knucklehead but he was a really good player for the Bengals
The’the Collins
I sí what you did there
You don’t know how the cap works do you