2015 DRAFT PLAYER PROFILE:

Landon Collins, Alabama, 6-0, 222, 4.52, JR … Athletic, physical DB was a celebrated recruit out of Louisiana who shocked everyone, including his own mother, when he chose to Alabama over LSU; played primarily on special teams as a true freshman in 2012 before taking over at SS mid-way through the following year when incumbent starter Vinny Sunseri was injured; listed as the Tide’s FS this fall, but is most effective lining up in the box near the line of scrimmage where he plays the run like an extra LB; reads the play well, takes good angles to the ball, and really explodes into tackles; still somewhat unpolished in coverage, but has the athletic skills to be a force in the deep secondary where he has excellent range; in fact, actually also played some nickel back early in his career; is very light on his field with flexible hips and moves well in space with the transitional quickness to line up in both man and zone schemes; also generally reads the field well, breaks crisply on the ball and has decent hands, but will bite too early on occasion and get caught badly out of position as he did in Alabama’s loss at Ole Miss where he was victimized on both Rebels’  TDs; projected long speed is good for a safety, but would greatly improve his grade if he were able to run under 4.5 seconds at the combine; indeed, reportedly ran under 4.4 at a high school all-star game where he also was credited with a very athletic 43.5-inch vertical, but those numbers tend to be inflated; there is also some concern in the scouting community that while Collins is considered by many scouts to be a better overall prospect than recent former Alabama first-round safeties Mark Barron and Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, a number of Alabama’s recent big-name defensive prospects haven’t always transitioned all that well to the pros.