Jess Haynie
The Cowboys are releasing starting Right Tackle La’el Collins today. The move is being designated as a June-1st cut, meaning Dallas will receive $10 million in additional cap space after June 1st from Collins’ contract.
After missing all of 2020 with a hip issue and a five-game suspension in 2021, Collins’ status with the team was uncertain coming into the offseason. Dallas’ efforts to elevate Terence Steele into the starting lineup throughout last year, even when La’el was healthy, made the issue between player and management very clear.
Now the Cowboys will go into 2022 with Steele as the clear starter at right tackle, barring any surprise additions over the next few months.
Todd Archer on Twitter: “The Cowboys will release La’el Collins today, per source. Expected to be a post-June 1 cut, saves $10 million. No trade but Collins will have a good market once he’s free to sign. / Twitter”
The Cowboys will release La’el Collins today, per source. Expected to be a post-June 1 cut, saves $10 million. No trade but Collins will have a good market once he’s free to sign.
Collins has been a Cowboys since 2015 when Dallas signed him after the 2015 NFL Draft. Seen as a potential 1st-Round prospect, La’el went undrafted when he was part of an investigation into a shooting death during the pre-draft process.
After a few years of struggling to find a role, Collins settled in at right tackle and emerged as one of the NFL’s best at the position. But then a chronic hip issue cropped up in 2019 and eventually led to surgery the following offseason.
Collins was suspended for five games in 2021 for missed drug testing. He tried to appeal and managed to play in Week 1 but then sat out the next five. When he came back, the Cowboys did not immediately give him the job back and were intent on seeing what Terence Steele could do.
La’el eventually retook his starting job after Thanksgiving and held it the rest of the season. But now, he’ll be looking for his next job elsewhere in the NFL.
Dallas will be able to use the extra $10 million later this offseason to sign their 2022 rookies and perhaps sign additional free agents. They will now carry an $8.7 million in dead money on the 2023 salary cap by making Collins a June-1st release.
What no trade value for a RT who may not ever be right after major hip surgery, had a poor season and just completed a suspension for an ugly cheating scandal?
Agree with lone wolf, this doesn’t pass the smell test. The cowboys obviously wanna be rid of him and no other team offered so much as a cup of coffee for him.
But I say goodbye and good riddance. Cowboys needed to rid themselves of some dead weight and head cases. Two down.
Gotta give it to Steven Jones writing these contact’s and then gas lighting the player making it seem as though the players and the cap are the problem. Why don’t we take a look at the guy handling out these contacts since 1996. And he still spits out the same line and all of us suckers believe it. Oh the cap just restrains us as a team. We need to split the pie. Blah, blah, blah. Think about it We have not sniffed a conference game since 1996. Just a sniveling little snake. Go ask Randy Gregory about him.
Amazing how these guys spin it that the player to pricey or ungrateful. Please remember these guys go through multiple surgery’s and play through injury to help the team and to make more money. Collins is just another example of Dallas just discarding a player. What happened to honoring a contract. A common line when a player wants a new deal. Sounds like they have no honor in Dallas. Keep drinking that Kool Aide cowboy fans.
Dude…’honoring a contract’??? the contract allows the team to cut a player; it is in the terms and conditions of the contract. If a player doesn’t ever want to be cut then insist those terms are removed…or don’t sign the contract….good grief.
They just released their best LG, whose salary was decent.
I am beginning to think these guys are clueless, unless he is just a bad guy.
Yup, gaping hole at LG, and they release a guy who was at least serviceable at the position.
Hard to believe nobody would give up even a 6th or 7th rounder for a starting RT. There are enough teams with struggling OL’s, besides us, that should be jumping at a proven player that could slide right in at RT and possibly play G at a decent level if needed.
That tells me something seriously soured them on La’el, and maybe it isn’t exactly a secret amongst teams. I’m wondering if he’s got something going on physically or off the field that’s got teams thinking he’s not worth $10M per year.
We’ll know if he gets signed to a lower “prove it” deal instead of a long term deal similar to what he was getting.