ESPN, Pro Football Focus Pick Patriots’ Top ‘Bounce-Back Candidate’ For 2019

Will a return to New England spark Jamie Collins in 2019?

ESPN and Pro Football Focus teamed up to identify the top “bounce-back candidate” for each NFL team in a piece published Monday on ESPN.com. Collins, who returned to New England in May after spending the past two-plus seasons with the Cleveland Browns, was their pick for the Patriots.

Collins, of course, was drafted by the Patriots in the second round (52nd overall) in 2013. He earned Pro Bowl honors with New England in 2015, but the Patriots traded the talented linebacker to the Browns in October 2016, after which he signed a four-year, $50 million contract with Cleveland in January 2017.

Collins never quite reached the same level in Cleveland, although the 29-year-old totaled 104 tackles and four sacks last season. ESPN and PFF remain high on Collins’ 2019 potential however, believing he’s more than capable of returning to prominence in his first season back with New England.

Here’s more from Austin Gayle of PFF regarding what went wrong in 2018:

Collins earned impressive grades across the board in his final two seasons in New England (2014-15), including high-end marks as a pass-rusher and run defender. However, he didn’t have the same level of success in a new scheme in Cleveland, earning sub-70.0 overall grades in each of the past three seasons with the Browns. Fortunately for Collins, he returns to play a part in the Patriots’ defense in 2019. Working as a depth/rotational piece behind starters Dont’a Hightower and Kyle Van Noy, Collins could get his career back on track.

Here’s more from Mike Reiss of ESPN regarding Collins’ 2019 outlook:

One of the strengths of Bill Belichick’s defense is a knack for maximizing a player’s strengths while masking deficiencies, and Collins’ return to the Patriots’ system sets him up for a bounce-back season. This is different from 2016, when the Patriots traded Collins for the low price of a late third-round draft pick, because Collins has received a big payday from Cleveland and is now all-in to whatever role he carves out in New England. Collins’ athleticism can be tapped in a variety of ways on a defense that alters its scheme and approach on a week-to-week basis, playing sub packages more than 85% of the time. Collins is also on a modest one-year deal, which means he’s playing for a bigger payday in 2020 and beyond.

The common knock on Collins at the time he was traded to Cleveland was that he improvised far too often, in turn negatively impacting New England’s defense. The Patriots have enjoyed plenty of success since Collins’ 2016 departure, so it’s hard to argue with the decision in hindsight, but there’s obviously a reason Belichick brought him back as a free agent this offseason.

The Patriots figure to enter 2019 with solid linebacker depth. Collins might not be an All-Pro like he was in 2015, but he could become a valuable contributor for New England as it looks to reach the Super Bowl for the fourth consecutive season.