La’el Collins - Pro Football Rumors

Cowboys Likely To Trade Or Release OL La’el Collins

March 13th, 2022 at 3:28pm CST by Ben Levine

3/13/22, 3:28pm: According to some updated information from ESPN’s Ed Werder, at least six teams have shown interest in Collins. It’s unclear whether any teams are eager enough to trade for him or whether they will wait to bid for his services upon his release.

3/12/22, 9:04am: It sounds like La’el Collins‘ stint with the Cowboys has effectively come to an end. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter), the organization has given the right tackle permission to seek a trade. If the team can’t find a trade partner, they’ll likely release the offensive lineman.

While the team would only save $1.3MM on their 2022 books by releasing or trading Collins, they could save $10MM if they designate him as a post-June 1 cut (per ESPN’s Dan Graziano on Twitter). The front office will have to juggle the financial advantages of waiting vs. any enticing offers they may receive.

Due to off-field allegations and threats of a holdout from his agent, Collins went undrafted during the 2015 draft. However, after catching on with the Cowboys, it didn’t take the lineman all that long to emerge as a dependable starter. While he had issues staying on the field during his first two seasons in the NFL, Collins started all but one game for Dallas between 2017 and 2019.

However, Collins didn’t appear to be a favorite of the Mike McCarthy-led staff. As ESPN’s Todd Archer notes on Twitter, the new Cowboys staff never “seemed to be a fan of Collins,” and it could have been attributed to a missed season in 2020 due to injury and a suspension in 2021. Upon returning to the team, Collins didn’t immediately get his starting gig back, although he did end up starting 10 of his 12 games last season.

Cowboys Discussing La’el Collins Trade

March 10th, 2022 at 1:58pm CST by Zachary Links

The Cowboys are engaged in active trade talks involving tackle La’el Collins (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Collins, who is due $10MM in 2022, has drawn interest from multiple teams, RapSheet hears.

Pro Football Focus graded Collins as one of the NFL’s best right tackles in 2019. After that, he missed 21 of his next 22 possible games. First came the hip injury which wiped out his 2020 season. Then, in 2021, Collins missed time with a neck injury and a five-game suspension. According to the NFL, Collins attempted to bribe a drug test official last year.

Collins came back in the fall, first as a left guard before moving back to the outside. From a football perspective, Collins’ contract is a bargain — he’s locked in through 2024 at $10MM/year. The going rate for tackles of his caliber and age group (29) is significantly higher.

On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys are hoping that DeMarcus Lawrence will agree to a pay cut. Currently, the edge rusher is scheduled to earn $17MM in base salary for 2022. If they drop the rest of his five-year, $100MM+ extension and use the post-June 1 designation, they can carve out $19MM in cap room for the coming year.

Cowboys Place OT Terence Steele On Reserve/COVID-19 List

November 28th, 2021 at 11:44am CST by Rory Parks

The Cowboys are dealing with a bit of a COVID problem. Per Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, the club has placed right tackle Terence Steele on the reserve/COVID-19 list after a positive test. As Watkins’ colleague, Michael Gehlken, tweets, Dallas’ O-line coach Joe Philbin, O-line assistant Jeff Blasko, offensive assistant Scott Tolzien, and strength and conditioning coaches Harold Nash, Jr., Cedric Smith, and Kendall Smith are also on the list following positive tests.

Neither Steele nor the staffers (with the possible exception of Cedric Smith) will be available for the Cowboys’ game against the Saints on Thursday. La’el Collins will get the start at RT in Steele’s absence.

Steele, a 2020 UDFA, served as Collins’ primary replacement last season, which Collins missed due to hip surgery. This year, Collins was hit with a five-game PED suspension, and starting left tackle Tyron Smith has missed time with an ankle injury. So Steele has played both LT and RT in 2021, and Pro Football Focus’ metrics paint him as the 53rd-best offensive tackle out of 81 qualifiers.

To combat further spread of the virus, the Cowboys will be working virtually through Monday and will have daily testing through Tuesday. The good news is that WR Amari Cooper, who has missed Dallas’ last two games due to a positive COVID test of his own, should be back in action for the Saints game, as Watkins writes.

The Cowboy’s other top wideout, CeeDee Lamb, who missed the club’s Thanksgiving loss to the Raiders due to a concussion, is also expected to clear protocols and suit up against New Orleans (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com).

La’el Collins To Play Reserve Role Coming Off Suspension

October 28th, 2021 at 2:07pm CST by Sam Robinson

La’el Collins‘ five-game PED suspension has elapsed, and the high-end right tackle returned to practice this week. But the Cowboys are not giving Collins his starting job back — at least not yet.

Terence Steele will remain Dallas’ starting right tackle this week, Mike McCarthy said Thursday. A former UDFA, Steele served as Collins’ primary right tackle fill-in last season — which Collins missed due to hip surgery — and returned to that role after Collins’ PED ban became official this year.

McCarthy said Collins will play a swing role to start out post-suspension, playing behind Steele and working as a reserve left guard, via David Moore of the Dallas Morning News. While Collins began his pro career at left guard, he has been Dallas’ top right tackle since the 2017 season. Collins, 28, is signed to a $10MM-per-year extension that runs through 2024.

“Obviously, LC has position flexibility,” McCarthy said, adding that he needs to see Collins go through practices before reinstalling him as a starter. “We are going to start the week with Terence at right tackle. So LC gives us some great competition in there. We are going to try to work him as much as possible.”

Pro Football Focus graded Collins as one of the NFL’s best right tackles in 2019, but he has missed 21 of the Cowboys’ past 22 games. After rating Steele as one of the league’s worst starting O-linemen last season, PFF slots the Texas Tech product 27th among tackles this year. Whichever way the Cowboys end up going at right tackle, the player that ends up as the reserve stands to create some plus depth for the NFC East leaders.

NFL: Cowboys’ La’el Collins Tried To Bribe Drug Test Official

September 26th, 2021 at 10:24am CST by Zachary Links

The NFL believes that Cowboys right tackle La’el Collins attempted to bribe the league’s drug-test collector, according to sources who spoke with Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. This would help to explain Collins’ recent five-game ban.

Collins reportedly did not test positive between October 21, 2020 and August 11, 2021. However, he’s missed seven tests along the way. The player’s camp claims that many of those missed tests were due to the pandemic, but attempted bribery is a different matter.

Schefter adds that the NFLPA helped to negotiate a reduction of the suspension, lowering it from five games to two. Instead, Collins filed an appeal and lost. The arbitrator reinstated the full five-game ban, which means that he’ll be out until Week 8, following the Cowboys’ bye. Collins has filed yet another appeal, but it’s believed to be something of a longshot.

All of those game checks will cost Collins approximately $2MM while also canceling next year’s $6.5MM injury guarantee. In the meantime, the rest of the 1-1 Cowboys are set to face the Eagles on Monday night in Dallas.

NFL Suspends Cowboys RT La’el Collins

September 12th, 2021 at 7:44am CST by Sam Robinson

Sep. 12: Collins is still fighting his suspension and is hopeful that the ban will be lifted or reduced, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes. Per La Canfora, Collins has been drug tested about 10 times per months for the last 18 months, and he did not test positive between October 21, 2020 and August 11, 2021.

However, as previous reports indicated, Collins’ suspension stems from missed tests, not positive test results. La Canfora says Collins has failed to appear for testing seven times, but Collins and his agent argue that there are good explanations for those missed tests. For instance, some of the testing dates were on days that the Cowboys sent players home due to a COVID-related issue.

At this point, Dallas can only hope that Collins and his reps will be able to convince the league to change its mind.

Sep. 10: A day after he returned for his first game since the 2019 season, La’el Collins received word he will be sidelined for a while. The NFL handed the longtime Cowboys right tackle a five-game suspension Friday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

Collins came back from a preseason neck injury to start against the Buccaneers, marking his return after a hip injury sidelined him throughout the 2020 season. But the seventh-year veteran will now be sidelined until Week 8, with Dallas’ bye coming in Week 7. Collins violated the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.

A missed drug test, or multiple missed tests, resulted in the ban, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. This Friday announcement has irked Collins’ reps, who believed the appeal process had not yet concluded, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk tweets. However, the NFL and the Cowboys announcing the ban will result in Collins missing nearly a third of the season. Collins’ team continues its appeal effort, ESPN.com’s Ed Werder notes (on Twitter), though it does not appear it will succeed.

This will be familiar territory for the Cowboys, who needed to use backup tackles for most of last season. UDFAs manned Dallas’ O-line edges for much of the 2020 slate, with Tyron Smith also missing 14 games due to injury. Both Smith and Collins were back at their posts Thursday night, and the Cowboys’ passing attack reignited with the outside blockers and Dak Prescott on the field again. The team will need to adjust, however.

Dallas added veteran swing tackle Ty Nsekhe this offseason and still rosters primary 2020 right tackle starter Terence Steele. Fellow 2020 emergency starter Brandon Knight is on Dallas’ reserve/COVID-19 list, joining All-Pro guard Zack Martin.

Cowboys’ La’el Collins Uncertain For Week 1

September 4th, 2021 at 3:20pm CST by Sam Robinson

Injuries have been a fairly steady presence during La’el Collins‘ NFL career. Although Collins missed only one game from 2017-19, the Cowboys’ right tackle starter missed most of 2016 and all of last season. He is in jeopardy of missing the start of this year’s Dallas slate.

Collins has been out of practice since last week due to a neck issue, and Mike McCarthy expressed uncertainty regarding the talented blocker’s Week 1 status. Collins is in a “holding pattern” with his latest injury, per McCarthy.

The seventh-year lineman has fully recovered from the hip injury that knocked him out of the 2020 season, but the prospect of a backup Cowboys right tackle facing the Buccaneers is firmly in play because of what the Cowboys have called a neck stinger. Should Collins be unable to go, McCarthy said either free agent acquisition Ty Nsekhe or holdover Terence Steele would start, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter).

It would seem Nsekhe would receive the call, having signed to help the Cowboys at swing tackle after the team lost Collins before last season and Tyron Smith early in that disappointing campaign. Nsekhe, however, will turn 36 this season. Dallas signed the former Washington and Buffalo spot starter to a one-year, $1.75MM deal ($500K guaranteed); Steele is a second-year UDFA who graded as Pro Football Focus’ fourth-worst full-time tackle last season. Steele worked as Collins’ primary fill-in in 2020, starting 14 games.

Collins, 28, ended the 2019 season as one of the league’s top right tackles, having experienced a run of good health after missing 13 games in 2016 due to a toe malady. The Cowboys have given Collins two extensions, the most recent being a five-year, $50MM re-up in 2019. With Smith having not surpassed 13 games played since the 2015 season, the Cowboys are counting on Collins to return to full strength soon.

Cowboys’ La’el Collins ‘Ready To Rock’ After Missing 2020

June 6th, 2021 at 9:34pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Cowboys’ offensive line declined sharply in 2020 due to injuries, and a large part of that was La’el Collins missing the entire season after undergoing hip surgery.

Fortunately it seems like his recovery has been going smoothly, and the starting tackle recently pulled back the curtain on that process and what led to the surgery for Jonny Auping of the team’s official site. “It was something that had been lingering for a while,” Collins revealed of his hip issues. “I couldn’t get down to what was going on. I kept working on it and it came down to the point where something had to be done.”

“It was tough,” he continued. “I kept going back and forth with myself. If I had to get the surgery done I was going to have to miss the season. It wasn’t something I was looking forward to at all. But it was something that had to be done. Now, I feel good. And I’m ready to rock.”

“To be honest with you, I’m just starting to feel like myself,” Collins said before adding that “all the hard work is definitely paying off.” The big fella said he’s doing pretty much everything at OTAs, although the team is being cautious and limiting him when he competes directly against defenders.

Before missing all of 2020 Collins had been quite reliable, starting at least 15 games in each of the previous three seasons. An UDFA out of LSU in 2015, Collins turned into a great find for the Cowboys.

He signed a five-year, $50MM extension with the team just before the start of the 2019 season. In an effort to ensure his health moving forward, Collins also said he’s lost some weight. Auping writes that “he currently weighs 313 pounds, which would be the lowest he’s ever played at.”

He was listed at 323 last season. No matter what weight he’s playing at, his return will be a big boost for Dak Prescott as he makes a comeback of his own.

Contract Restructures: Panthers, Cowboys, Giants, Saints, Eagles, Steelers

March 10th, 2021 at 5:51pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

It’s that time of year when teams are frantically maneuvering ahead of free agency. Due to the cap falling because of COVID-19, things are even more hectic than ever. We’ve seen a whole bunch of contract restructures come in, and there will be a whole lot more. Let’s catch you up on the latest batch and their financial implications:

The Panthers restructured Christian McCaffrey‘s contract recently, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets. They converted $7MM of his $8MM base salary into a signing bonus, which freed up about $5.6MM in cap space for 2021. Almost a year ago McCaffrey signed his record-breaking extension that has him locked up through the 2025 season.
The Cowboys have had a busy week with Dak Prescott‘s massive extension now in the books, and they made a trio of moves to help clear some space. Dallas restructured the deals of Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, and La’el Collins, a source told Todd Archer of ESPN.com. The reworking of the three offensive linemen’s contracts cleared up about $17MM in cap space for Jerry Jones. As Archer notes, these moves have now gotten Dallas under the cap for 2021.
The Giants just cut top offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler as they look to clear cap space to keep guys like defensive linemen Leonard Williams and Dalvin Tomlinson. The Zeitler release isn’t the only shuffling they’re doing, as they also restructured the contract of tight end Levine Toilolo, and Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com tweeted the details. Rather than a procedural restructure like you see with star players, Toilolo actually took a pay-cut to stay with the team. He had been scheduled to make $2.95MM this year but agreed to reduce that to $1.6MM, saving the Giants north of $1MM against the cap.
We’ve got four other restructures to pass along, courtesy of this tweet from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The Saints restructured the deals of safety Malcolm Jenkins to save $3.4MM and offensive lineman Andrus Peat to save $6MM. New Orleans has the worst cap situation in the league, and they desperately needed moves like this to do things like franchise tag safety Marcus Williams.
The Eagles saved $2.4MM by reworking the deal of offensive lineman Isaac Seumalo. Philly is right up there with New Orleans in terms of bad cap situations, so GM Howie Roseman is likely far from done here.
The Steelers saved $880K by adjusting fullback Derek Watt‘s contract. Not exactly front page news here, but it should shore up Watt’s spot on the 2021 roster. T.J. and J.J.’s brother signed a three-year, $9.75MM pact last offseason.

Cowboys RT La’el Collins Out For Season

October 3rd, 2020 at 6:35pm CST by Sam Robinson

La’el Collins will, in fact, undergo season-ending surgery on his bothersome hip, Jane Slater of NFL.com reports (on Twitter).

This loomed as a possibility for the Cowboys right tackle, but now that the veteran blocker will proceed with the operation, it represents a major blow to a team that has struggled on the injury front thus far. Collins will go under the knife Wednesday, Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News tweets.

The Cowboys’ hopes he would recover with rest and treatment failed, with the sixth-year offensive lineman still in considerable pain. Collins has not played this season and will remain on Dallas’ IR list the rest of the way. This will mark the second time Collins will have been shut down early in a season. A toe malady ended Collins’ 2016 season after three games. Between 2017-19, the Round 1 talented-turned-UDFA started 47 of the Cowboys’ 48 regular-season games.

Dallas has been without Collins and All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith for the past two games. However, Smith is expected to return against the Browns on Sunday. The Cowboys will then have to decide on one of their UDFA backups — Terence Steele or Brandon Knight — to start opposite Smith, per Ed Werder of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Cowboys moved Zack Martin to right tackle on Sunday, but it appears the team will keep the All-Pro guard at his more familiar spot — at least to start the game against Cleveland. Pro Football Focus has graded Knight ahead of Steele thus far, though neither have made a particularly strong impression. The Seahawks’ maligned pass rush made a late impact to swing the teams’ Week 3 shootout.

Although Collins signed a second Cowboys extension last year, this will stunt his on-field momentum. The former guard emerged as one of the better right tackles in football last season. He will have to wait until 2021 to build on that.