Cleveland Browns: Impact of the Jamie Collins Contract

The current regime for the Cleveland Browns has planted their flag with the signing of Jamie Collins to a reported four-year, $50 million deal with $26.5 million guaranteed.

After a lot of courting back and forth, complete with reports saying the deal would be announced over the weekend and a premature post by the Cleveland Browns to their app, the Browns and Jamie Collins were finally able to consummate a deal. The raw numbers of the deal are four years for $50 million with $26.5 million guaranteed.

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Without knowing the exact structure of the deal, the reaction at first blush is that yes, Collins got a healthy contract—but one not nearly as big as expected, at least in raw dollars. It seemed more likely to see a contract worth around $60 million in all, but when the year-by-year specifics came out, it would include money Collins was never going to see and prove meaningless.

The average of $12.5 million is a good amount of money, but it wasn’t the so-called “Von Miller money” Collins was reportedly seeking. Miller averages $19 million per year. It’s a good deal that will be eclipsed in years, maybe even months, by any number of other contracts. And between the real salary cap and the somewhat artificial rollover cap, the first year is a drop in the bucket for the Browns.

This deal enables the Browns to now use either the franchise or transition tag on free agent Terrelle Pryor. So unless they want to let Pryor walk, which isn’t likely, they can bring back two extremely talented players in their primes. Considering the amount of skepticism from both fans and media they’d keep either one, they are definitely keeping one and have control of both.

From a franchise standpoint, this sets a tone for this regime. This group allowed Alex Mack, Mitchell Schwartz, Tashaun Gipson and Travis Benjamin to walk in free agency a year ago. This year, they acquired Jamie Collins in a trade with the New England Patriots and now they are making the move to keep him another four years. He fits the profile of players they want (run fast, jump high, be productive and don’t get in trouble) and they’ve succeeded in keeping him.

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Reportedly, they are negotiating a deal with restricted free agent running back Isaiah Crowell and have at least negotiated at points with Pryor. Pryor’s deal may be one of the last ones to get done, espeically if the franchise tag is involved, but the Browns are currently trying to get Crowell re-signed.

The hope for the franchise is that Collins can be the first of several steps that help the Browns not only become a better team in the standings, but are viewed as a more credible one as well. Cleveland has been perceived all too often as the place where careers go to die and players squeeze out one final payday. If Collins can flourish and be one of multiple good moves, they can build some momentum to changing how they are viewed.

The Browns had to trade for Collins to have the specter of control to get this deal done. Had Collins been in the open market, the Browns were not likely to have a shot at signing him. They made their own luck by getting him and taking control of his rights, which is extremely smart on their part and important overall. If this goes as planned, they won’t necessarily need to trade to gain control of a player to be a real contender for their services.

It’s a risk, but certainly a prudent one by this organization. The worst case scenario was Collins playing for half a year and signing a contract elsewhere, having the Browns get a third round compensatory pick in 2018. Had Collins walked, the Browns would have been crushed for it, even though the trade was a complete wash. If they franchised him, the assumption would be he’s playing here against his will, even though he’d be getting 280 percent of his career earnings for one season of work.

With a four-year deal, the Browns have changed the argument. Collins is here, he’s going to be here for the foreseeable future and now the issue gets litigated on the field as it should. The Browns and Collins have to prove this was a smart decision, but that happens in games as opposed to rhetoric.

After playing half a season under Ray Horton, it will be interesting to see how Collins’ role will change in newly hired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ defensive scheme. If the Los Angeles Rams defense is a blueprint for player roles, the Rams carried very few true linebackers. Alec Ogletree was basically the only full-time linebacker playing the middle backer spot.

It stands to reason that the middle backer in Williams’ defense in Cleveland will be Chris Kirksey. He’s coming off a good year where he played that spot. Kirksey has shown the leadership and intelligence that Williams has said he wants in that position, because he has to rely on them to make calls in certain situations.

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The other linebacker type spot was played by Mark Barron, a safety that the Rams traded the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to obtain and repurpose. Barron went from being the seventh-overall pick of the 2012 NFL Draft and a massive disappointment for the Bucs to being a successful hybrid linebacker with the Rams for the cost of a fourth- and sixth-round pick for the Rams.

This seems like the spot that Collins will play in Cleveland. Barron is listed at 6-2, 217 pounds. Collins is listed 6-3, 250, but is an extraordinary athlete. So conceivably, Collins could do everything Barron did, but do it with far more size.

This past season, Collins was probably heavier than 250 and it was suggested that his physical shape might have had something to do with why he was shipped by the New England Patriots. Collins could just get down to 250 and be in great shape, but the Browns might actually want Collins to get lighter than that, closer to 240.

The reason is twofold. First, while Collins has shown he can function on the edge, it seems unlikely he will be asked to do that for Gregg Williams. Rather than being asked to potentially set the edge and take on offensive line blocks, it’s more likely Collins will be asked to cover ground, which is what Barron did.

This would also benefit Collins in his ability to play in coverage. This is the advantage Barron has simply because he’s a little lightly and slightly more fluid than Collins at this size. At 240, Collins might gain make up a ton of short area quickness and get to become a super sized Barron. Collins can still blitz and attack, which Williams wants to do, but it lets him become more of a sideline to sideline defender and hopefully become a lockdown defender against tight ends in coverage.

Especially for Williams, this comes down to the defensive line and how critical it is to the pass rush. Yes, he will blitz, but with Emmanuel Ogbah on one side and presumably Myles Garrett on the other, they should have the ability to attack from the edges where Collins becomes a luxury rather than a necessity. His threat as a blitzer more than makes up for being a full-time edge player.

This simplifies Collins’ role slightly even while not reducing his potential impact. Both he and Kirksey are totally focused on being complete second level defenders who can also attack on the blitz, but are primarily concerned with being run and chase players.

This move also gives the Browns a known quantity in their defense. Their linebacker duo is a legitimate strength, which can hopefully take some pressure off the rest of the defense as they grow up and develop around them. Next year Kirksey will be on the final year of his deal and the Browns then need to extend him, so that both are in place for several years together.

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The contract to keep Jamie Collins is less about money than it is impact. Collins could be the first big step for the Cleveland Browns working to change the state of their team’s record as well as their reputation. The money being paid to Collins is pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things, but success with him and building upon that with other smart moves is how this regime hopes to make their bid for success and is how it will be judged.