Atlanta Falcons: Jalen Collins continues to make strides heading into 2017
Troubled with speed of the NFL and dealing with league suspensions could be hard on anyone but things seem to get a bit tricky when your Jalen Collins.
When head coach Dan Quinn first arrived in Atlanta, it was made clear that he would work with general manager Thomas Dimitroff to reload the once prominent NFC powerhouse back to the top of league. In the first NFL draft of the Quinn-Dimitroff era, the two brought in some of Falcons premier players like Vic Beasley, Tevin Coleman, and Grady Jarrett but many were a bit surprised by the duo’s decision to draft former LSU cornerback Jalen Collins in the second round.
Before the draft, many analysts had projected Collins has a top-50 player on their boards based off his size (6-1ft 201pounds), athleticism, and ability to compete downfield but he only gathered together 10 career starts and admitted to failing multiple drug-tests while at LSU. For years the Falcons carried a hard filter for players who dealt with troubles in college and it didn’t seem like a necessary fit with veteran cornerback Robert Alford still on the roster.
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Though fans put their trust into Quinn’s philosophy of building a more athletic overall team, it remained hard to ignore how poor things began for Collins during the his first season. Now it isn’t normal for first-year cornerbacks to make an imminent impact but Collins seemed to lag behind others has he only started two games and finished the season with a poor ProFootballFocus grade of 44.2.
In the following season, Atlanta to continued to build the team through the draft and more depth into the defense with noticeable players like safety Keanu Neal, cornerback Brian Poole (UDFA), defensive end Derrick Shelby, and veteran pass-rusher Dwight Freeney. It also seemed as though the year to see more improvement from Collins who had began during the off-season and was plan to be given a bigger role within the defense but he was soon suspended for for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances for the first four games of the 2016 season. Again it had seemed as though the acquisition to get Collins was soon to be a regret for the Falcons with much of team being a unknown commodity.
As Collins served the four-game suspension, the Falcons went on to secure a 3-1 record and found a gem in undrafted free agent Brian Poole as he held the nickel back position as starting corners Robert Alford and Desmond Trufant man the outside boundaries. According to ProFootballFocus, Poole allowed 9.3 yards per reception as a rookie, trailing only Tavon Young (9.0) among first-year cornerbacks and led all rookie corners in yards per cover snap allowed (0.80). When Collins finished his suspension it seemed hard to project where he would finds snaps with Poole being productive as he was during the season.
It wasn’t until week 9 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that Collins was given significant playing time after star cornerback Desmond Trufant went down for the season after suffering a shoulder injury.
After going though a horrible rookie season and dealing with a league suspension, Collins finally began to show improvement throughout the rest of the season and following into the post-season. Collins finished as ProFootballFocus 22nd-ranked cornerback with a 81.5 grade and seemed to show up when the defense needed a big play to be made with 9 pass breakups and 2 interceptions as Atlanta pushes towards the Super Bowl. Collins was instrumental in defending some of the top receivers in the league and handled his own when the spotlight was put on him.
Now heading into 2017 with bigger and better expectations it seems as though Collins may be slotted as the outside boundary corner as Alford and Poole take snaps inside.
Next: Atlanta Falcons: 53-Man roster prediction
If Collins can continue to show improvement over the course of the season then I think all thoughts of bust status may be forgotten with fans and teams across the league can take notice of the talent surrounding the Falcons defensive back group.