Landon Collins excelling in new role

Taking a closer look at Landon Collins’ new role and how well he’s played in recent weeks

We’ve heard various different names for the role Landon Collins is playing in Washington’s defense so far this season. He started as a strong safety but also played some Buffalo nickel. Ron Rivera then called him a linebacker a few weeks ago after the team lost starting linebacker Jon Bostic to injury. After Washington’s win over the Seahawks on Monday Night Football, Rivera called him a drop down safety. 

With all these different names and alignments, it’s tough to put a finger exactly on what Collins’ actual role is within the defense. The truth is he’s not any one singular thing, but rather a combination of all of them. Thanks to the versatility of Washington’s top three safeties, Collins, Kam Curl and Bobby McCain, Washington can move each guy around to suit their skill set. On any given play, Collins could start aligned deep and end up over the slot or even as a linebacker.

On this play, Washington has just one linebacker on the field in Cole Holcomb, while Curl aligns over the slot and Collins starts from deep alongside McCain. However, the tight end motions across the formation, so Collins works down into the box and follows the tight end to the other side while signalling McCain to work deep. The tight end then takes off running behind the quarterback as part of an RPO play. The quarterback can either hand the ball off inside to the back or keep it and throw to the tight end on a swing screen to the flat. 

Collins follows the tight end on the initial motion, but then signals for Holcomb to pick up the tight end as he works behind the quarterback and to the flat, likely because Holcomb had less ground to make up. However, this meant that on a play where Collins started aligned deep, he ended up as the only linebacker in the box, having to replace Holcomb’s run responsibility. Fortunately, Collins has a good grasp on the entire defense rather than just one spot within it, so he knows where to be and fills his gap, helping keep the gain to a minimum.

It’s no secret that Collins is better closer to the line of scrimmage than he is playing deep all the time. While he might play deep from a split safety alignment from time to time, in this new role Washington has found for him, he’s far more likely to look like a linebacker or nickel defender.

This is a position we’re seeing Collins start in quite often in the past few weeks. He’s at the same depth as the linebackers, but not quite in the box with them, nor is he over the slot as a slot defender. This is known as an overhang or apex defender. The overhang defender will have a run responsibility and also a coverage responsibility, likely a flat zone or walling off an in-breaking route from outside. From this spot, Collins is able to work a little more freely in the run game, rather than having to be in the box and accounted for by the offense as a linebacker, where he has to work off blocks from offensive lineman that could be 100 pounds heavier than him. 

As we see on this play, the Seahawks look to run a counter scheme, with the guard pulling to kick out the edge and the tight end following to loop around for the linebacker. They also have a receiver run a jet sweep fake just to add more confusion. Collins starts in his overhang spot but quickly reads the run with the motion and essentially follows the jet sweep fake into the backfield. Because of his alignment, the offense has nobody in position to block him, so Collins bursts into the backfield and blows up the run, tackling the running back in the backfield for a loss.