The Detroit Lions made their first free agency splash on defense by agreeing to sign veteran linebacker Jamie Collins. The ex-Patriot will sign in Detroit for three years and $30 million, per numerous reports.

What exactly are the Lions getting in the 30-year-old Collins?

I got the opportunity to watch every snap Collins played, most of them several times, during his two-plus seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He was dealt to Cleveland midway through the 2016 season by the New England Patriots and spent all of 2017 and 2018 with the Browns.

Those Browns teams were terrible, winning one game. Collins’ level of engagement waned with each passing week, which is unfortunate because, for about the first 20 or so games, he was a really good off-ball linebacker.

Collins is an outstanding athlete. It’s faded a bit over time from his college days, but he was a predecessor to what Isaiah Simmons is in 2020. And his ability to move well in space and cover tight ends and RBs was his best attribute in Cleveland. He handled that role while occasionally blitzing in Gregg Williams’ hyper-aggressive (think Jim Schwartz without a filter) 4-3 defense.

Almost as important as what Collins is: what he is not. He is not an EDGE. Collins has been an off-ball LB for the last four years and hasn’t regularly taken snaps as a pass rusher since before Bob Quinn took over as Lions GM. He’s taken more snaps as a slot corner (aligned over a flexed TE) than he has as a hand-in-dirt defensive end over the last four years.

Having said that, Collins can still rush the passer. He bagged a career-high seven sacks in 2019 in New England. The Patriots used him as more of a secondary rush weapon, often working in conjunction with Kyle Van Noy, who played the more traditional EDGE (Jack) role for New England. It’s a role Collins played very well.

His length and 1-2 step closing burst to the point of attack make him very effective as a rusher and at disrupting passing options as both a rusher and in coverage. Collins does have excellent natural instincts at working with the line and the rest of the front in a coordinated rush. He played some defensive tackle (at 255 pounds) in college and it taught him how to better use his hands and the timing of how to attack the O-line.

There is the matter of his prior relationship with Matt Patricia. There were loud whispers when Collins was dealt to the Browns that he and Patricia, then the Patriots’ defensive coordinator, did not get along. I personally asked Collins about it in a press conference in Cleveland and he deferred, choosing to not talk about anything Patriots-related at the time.

Those whispers have never gone away, nor have they ever been confirmed. Collins had other options and chose to play under Patricia, so I’m going to consider that water under the bridge. My larger worry is that the Collins I watched at the end of his Cleveland time, a disinterested and apathetic player checked out because of the mounting losses, reemerges if the Lions aren’t better than they have been under Patricia thus far.

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