Frank Clark trade looks even better in retrospect for Chiefs
By Matt Conner
L.J. Collier
Pete Carroll just said that Collier had his “best game by far of contributing” on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. In that game, Collier played a total of 37 snaps and had zero tackles, zero passes batted, zero turnovers caused. In fact, he failed to register a single statistic. Collier’s best outing basically registered nothing in the box score.
We all know (or should) that reading the stat sheet is the wrong way to determine a player’s true productivity. Sacks only tell a small part of the story of a pass rusher’s ability to disrupt the pocket. A cornerback can come up with zero interceptions when quarterbacks simply refuse to throw their way. You get the drift. The stat-less presence of Collier’s day doesn’t necessarily reflect Collier’s tape.
However it doesn’t help.
All season long, Collier has struggled to get on the field despite being drafted to fill the very presence of the player they traded away in Frank Clark. So far, Collier has 2 tackles in 140 total snaps, playing sparingly over a total of 9 games. For some games, he’s been a healthy scratch.
Here’s the reality. Defensive linemen need time, more often than not to develop. It took the entire length of his rookie deal for Dee Ford to develop into the sort of difference maker that John Dorsey first envisioned. The Chiefs have also taken guys like Tyson Jackson or Glenn Dorsey very high in the draft only to watch them end up as middling performers. It’s the risk you take drafting and developing these guys and Collier is just the latest.
Working in his favor was the fact that he was injured for part of the preseason and missed the sort of developmental on-ramp that he could have had. Working against him is the fact that he’s already 24-years-old and entered the NFL with three full seasons as a starter in the Big 12 (at TCU).
Only time can tell but this first year isn’t too exciting of a return for the biggest part of the deal for the Seahawks. At the very least, he took some kids holiday shopping.