Alabama S Landon Collins declares for the NFL Draft
By Peter Smith
Alabama safety Landon Collins is forgoing his senior season and declaring for the 2015 NFL Draft as confirmed by his mother. Perhaps no one is more excited about this move than his mother, who famously was inconsolable when Collins picked Alabama over LSU, where she wanted him to go. Collins took over the starting job when Vinnie Sunseri went down with an ACL injury last season and has not looked back.
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Listed 6′ 222lbs, Collins has experience playing deep but much of his role was playing in the box basically like an extra linebacker. Against Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, he was up in the box virtually the entire game for example. He collected 60 solo tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 7 pass deflections, 3 interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 14 games this year.
Cooper makes the third safety from the Rolling Tide to declare in the last few years, joining Mark Barron and Ha’Sean Clinton-Dix. Barron, the more similar of the two to Collins, has had an extremely disappointing career thus far after being a top 10 pick. It will be interesting to see if Collins’ stock is hurt by the track record of the Bama program in the NFL, particularly as it relates to injuries. Nevertheless, it will be commonplace to see Collins the top rated safety in this class.