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L.J. Collier reacts during a 2020 game.
With NFL rosters shuffling from 85 players to 80 by the Aug. 23, deadline, teams like the New York Giants have to make tough decisions on who to keep or let go.
Final cuts aren’t due until August 30, when each team needs to supply 53 players. Players can be cut, but also traded based on the respective team’s depth chart and the respective player’s training camp and preseason play.
On Aug. 22, the NFL has already seen two trades. The Minnesota Vikings traded a 2024 NFL Draft conditional seventh-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for quarterback Nick Mullens. Then, the Buffalo Bills traded offensive lineman Cody Ford to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a fifth-round pick.
According to a list of trade proposals that each team should offer before the season by Alex Kay of Bleacher Report, the Seattle Seahawks could trade edge defender L.J. Collier to the Giants.
Kay believes that the Giants could acquire Collier for a “conditional seventh-round pick” which would be a “bargain-big price.”
“While Seattle could simply cut Collier, offering the edge-rusher up to a rebuilding team could net at least a conditional seventh-round pick based on his pedigree and upside,” Kay wrote. “The New York Giants fit the bill here. The team is looking to exit a rebuild this offseason and could roll the dice on Collier to potentially add some surprise production at a bargain-bin price.”
Collier’s Inefficient NFL Career
During Collier’s redshirt senior season at TCU, he erupted by posting six sacks, 11.5 tackles for loss and four pass deflections, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors.
That would lead to Collier earning a Senior Bowl invite, where he stood out and helped his draft stock. The Seahawks were watching and would select him with the 29th overall pick in 2019.
Collier didn’t get the start he wanted as a rookie. He suffered an “unusual” ankle sprain in training camp and played in just 11 games that year before undergoing ankle surgery the following offseason. He nabbed just three combined tackles as a rookie with zero sacks or quarterback hits.
In 2020, Collier was able to start in all 16 games and recorded three sacks. However, the 26-year-old had a tough time finding the field last season, playing in just 10 games and missing the other seven as a healthy inactive. He posted eight tackles across 218 snaps in 2021.
Why Would Giants Want Collier?
With the Giants losing rookie edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux for three to four weeks after suffering a sprained MCL, it’s possible the Giants could look to add at the outside linebacker position. After Azeez Ojulari, the Giants have Jihad Ward, Oshane Ximenes, Quincy Roche, Elerson Smith and Tomon Fox on the edge.
Kay believes adding Collier to the mix would help the team’s depth on the outside.
“Big Blue’s starters on the edge are solid, but the depth behind them isn’t elite,” Kay wrote. “Having a group of rotational edge-rushers like Collier to throw at opposing quarterbacks will help this defense evolve into a playoff-worthy one.”
Thibodeaux’s injury could just mean that the Giants won’t cut any of their edge rushers on the roster. Still, if you know Don “Wink” Martindale’s defensive scheme, he wants as many pass-rushers as possible.
While Collier hasn’t shown it at the NFL level, it wouldn’t seem harmful to trade a seventh-round pick to see if the Giants can tap into the former first-round pick’s abilities.
Daboll pinned Ximines and Roche as players who could be asked to handle bigger roles with Thibodeaux sidelined.
Trading for Collier likely wouldn’t change that fact.
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