3 defensive MVPs for the Patriots after first half of season
2. Jamie Collins
Timing is everything, both in real life and in sports.
Los Angeles Lakers fans probably can scarce believe Dwight Howard is once again on their roster, given how badly things went the first go-around when Howard was a Laker… and yet he’s back in LaLaLand, and the early returns have been promising through the first few games of the NBA season.
Similarly, New England fans probably assumed they’d seen the last of Jamie Collins in a Patriots jersey when he was traded on Halloween three years ago. Collins had earned the ire of Belichick, supposedly because he had a habit of going off-script and “freelancing” on defensive play calls when he felt so inclined. He also was soon due for a massive payday, which probably didn’t help things either.
So in pure Belichickian Patriots fashion, the team decided he was worth neither the cheddar nor the occasional headache, despite all his apparent talent and potential… and they shipped him off to the Browns for a conditional third-round draft pick.
Collins got his coinage in Cleveland, inking a lucrative four-year, $50 million deal in January of 2017. Thankfully for him, over half the contract was guaranteed – because he was released by the team just two years after he signed the pact. He then spent two months on the unemployment line before getting a call from an unexpected suitor: the same team that had casually discarded him a couple years earlier.
Once again… timing is everything.
Now in his second stint with the Patriots, Collins has been nothing short of an absolute revelation. The Browns must be furious that he’s having the kind of season now with Belichick in New England that they originally paid him big money to have years ago.
But with all due respect to the Cleveland organization and its carousel of head coaches and defensive coordinators, no one is better than Belichick at getting the best from his players – and Collins is the foremost example of that this season.
He leads the Patriots in total tackles this year with 44 (35 of which he’s solely responsible for). He also leads the team in sacks with 6.0, leads the team in tackles for loss with 10.5, is tied for first on the team in forced fumbles with two, and is tied for second on the team in fumble recoveries with one.
As a pass defender, he’s tied for second on the team in picks with Stephon Gilmore (each has three). He also has the fourth-most passes defended on the team with four so far – the same number as defensive backs Jason McCourty and Duron Harmon. Only Gilmore, Jonathan Jones, and Devin McCourty have more passes defended this season.
The sack and interception totals are already career highs for Collins, who is now in his seventh NFL season. He also got his first career defensive touchdown this season in Week 2 against the Dolphins on a 69-yard Ryan Fitzpatrick pick-six.
Can Collins challenge for NFL Defensive Player of the Year? It’s not a crazy thought, even though it might have been just a year or two ago. Certainly if he maintains his current pace and finishes the season with double-digit sacks, a few more picks, and perhaps as the team’s leading tackler, he’d warrant significant consideration.
A lot still rides on the collective performance of this New England defense as well. If they can somehow replicate the incredible success they had in the first half of the season during a much tougher second half, it might put pressure on the NFL and the media to give the award to a member of the Pats defense. If that ends up happening, Collins would certainly be a worthy recipient.