Landon Collins inched backward, his body hunched over in a two-point stance as his eyes scanned the field before fixating on the quarterback. As the play unfolded Saturday and receivers barreled toward him, he lurched forward and dove for the ball, tumbling at the goal line before sprinting up field with a swarm of defensive players in tow. Tight end Logan Thomas, the intended target of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s pass, trailed as the sideline erupted.
Moments later, Collins walked off the practice field flashing a peace sign: one finger for each of his interceptions that morning. Lest there was any doubt, Collins is back.
“Way better than before,” Collins said. “I feel stronger, faster, in shape, just doing my thing. I’m back on the field, and I’m happy now."
His true comeback is about more than his recovery; it’s about proving he still belongs among the NFL’s upper echelon of safeties.
The veteran safety and one of the leaders of the Washington Football Team’s secondary returned from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon he suffered in the middle of last season. After surgery, he said he was given a timetable of nine to 12 months to return to full strength. He needed only 7½ months working with a team of doctors, therapists and trainers in Florida, his home state of Louisiana and New Jersey.
He returned to practice in the spring but didn’t participate in team drills. Instead, he stood behind the action, next to defensive backs coach Chris Harris, and mimicked the movements and reads of the safety, running through each play in his head as if he were physically in the thick of it.
“I think it’s really helped him in terms of he’s playing fast right now,” Coach Ron Rivera said. “... It’s kind of interesting because sometimes when players stand back there and get the coaching perspective, you see a little bit more, and that probably helped him. He looks great. He’s in great shape.”
Rivera has praised Collins’s physicality and playmaking ability.
Collins suffered the injury early in a blowout win over the Cowboys in October, a game that proved to be a turning point in Washington’s season. In the first quarter, he strip-sacked quarterback Andy Dalton, leading to a safety after Dallas recovered the ball in the end zone — Washington’s first two points of the game. Moments later, Collins was carted off FedEx Field, facing the prospect of surgery and a lengthy rehab while seventh-round rookie Kam Curl took his spot — and excelled.
“I loved everything he did last year,” Collins said. “It gave us more versatility to what we can do. A lot of people want me to play linebacker; now we have the option to do that. We have the option to put me more in the box if we need to do something and have more defensive backs on the field. If we have six defensive backs on the field, I’ll take it.”
Collins’s absence led to Curl’s rise, but their future together remains unclear. The plan for the safeties collectively is unclear.
Washington is deep with safeties, most of whom are viewed as strong safeties. Deshazor Everett recovered from a season-ending injury and returned to practice Tuesday after beginning camp on the active/non-football illness list. Curl is expected to have a more prominent role after impressing in Year 1. The team also discovered the potential of Jeremy Reaves and Cole Luke as it compensated for injuries last season. It also drafted Darrick Forrest and signed veteran Bobby McCain.
“It’s going to be a good competition,” Rivera said. “Landon has done a lot of good things in the past for this football team. We’ll see how he continues to grow and get better.”
Early speculation in the offseason was that Collins might switch to linebacker as Curl took over strong safety. Although Collins had heard the talk before, he bristled at that in the offseason. He is a safety and will remain a safety, both he and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio assured. But his role has always been a hybrid of sorts; Collins has played the majority of his defensive snaps in the box, yet he still drops into coverage as a traditional safety and moves around in Washington’s sub-packages. At times, he is a linebacker on the field.
In Del Rio’s system, versatility is paramount.
“We call ourselves defensive backs, but we can play any position on the field,” Collins said. “We have Kendall [Fuller] playing nickel, we have Jimmy [Moreland] playing nickel, we have Kam playing nickel as a safety. Different packages as we play different teams this year.”
Although Collins had a pair of sacks and was graded highly by Pro Football Focus for his pass-rushing ability, he’s coming off what could be considered a down year for him against the run and in coverage, primarily because of his missed tackle rate of 18 percent.
Collins’s play is almost annually compared to his 2016 season, when was named first-team all-pro. But since arriving in Washington in 2019, he has played for two coaching staffs and with new teammates in the secondary each season. His relative experience has value to a team in transition.
“He’ll communicate a lot during plays because he has lined up on the outside,” cornerback William Jackson III said. “He’s just a smart player, and I’m just soaking up everything that he knows about the defense. He’s getting me on the same page as far as us all doing it as one and having fun.”
But Collins’s future could also be dictated by money. He’s in the middle of a six-year contract, and the structure of the deal gives Washington an out after this season. He has no more guaranteed salary after this year, and Washington could be incentivized to move on from him.
“That pressure is always on me,” Collins said. “… Pressure breaks pipes, but I am a strong pipe, I can promise you that.”
