Why Seahawks made first-round pick L.J. Collier a healthy scratch one game into his career
L.J. Collier was excited. He felt he was finally, truly a Seahawk.
Seattle’s rookie first-round draft choice had been grinding for more than a month, sidelined from late July through the opening game of his NFL debut season by a badly sprained foot and ankle. In week two at Pittsburgh, Collier finally arrived. He played 16 snaps of the Seahawks’ win over the Steelers Sept. 15.
Days later, the thankful defensive end was still smiling about re-joining the Seahawks’ defense.
“I set goals for myself for the first game. I did better than I thought I would,” Collier said last week at his locker before practice. “I was a lot faster than I thought I’d be.
“It feels good to be back.”
But last weekend he was back to idling.
The Seahawks made the curious decision to leave the finally-healthy Collier inactive for Sunday’s home loss to the New Orleans Saints. He was benched one game into his career.
Each NFL team must decide by 90 minutes before kickoff which seven men on its roster of 53 to leave inactive for each game. Most of those inactive spots go to injured players. When there aren’t seven injured guys who can’t play, a few healthy ones get relegated to sweats and team gear other than uniforms. They watch the game from the sidelines, inactive.
It’s rare in this league for a first-round pick to be a healthy scratch three weeks into his rookie season. Even more rare when he plays a position of current need for his team.
Seattle’s pass rush has been an issue since it traded top sack man Frank Clark to Kansas City this spring, and it continues to be through three games of this young season. That’s why they drafted Collier, at 29th overall in April.
So why was he in a blue rain parka Sunday instead of chasing Teddy Bridgewater, the Saints quarterback whom the Seahawks didn’t sack and hit just two times in 27 drop backs to pass?
“He had a good opportunity last week (in the Steelers game) because of the numbers on the roster and all that. We’re just trying to work him back up,” coach Pete Carroll said of Collier Monday. “We’re taking a look at guys. We had a chance to see Ziggy (Ansah) for the first time and we wanted to make sure to do that.
“Right now, at this early stage, it’ll go back and forth a little bit until he gets enough playing time to establish himself. Be a good chance he’ll be involved this week. We’ll see.”
What is Carroll telling Collier this week in preparations for the first NFC West game this season for the Seahawks (2-1), at Arizona (0-2-1) Sunday?
“Just keep working. Just keep working.” Carroll said.
“He’s just so new.”
A month newer than he would have been had Collier not gotten his leg rolled up on by a teammate during 11-on-11 scrimmaging on the fifth day of training camp July 30.
He did not practice from July 30 to Aug. 27. He didn’t play in any of the four preseason games. That time off the field was particularly damaging to his development, because Collier was not a finished gem when Seattle traded down and drafted him.
He had one, breakout year in college at Texas Christian. That was last season. His first year as a college starter was his senior one. He had six sacks and 11 1/2 tackles for loss last year for TCU. Pro Football Focus named him the Big 12 Conference’s best pass rusher in 2018.
Collier and safety Marquise Blair, the team’s number-two rookie draft pick who missed most of August with hip and back injuries, currently are far behind their teammates and rookie classmates in the team’s system. And farther back in the coaches’ immediate plans.
Availability matters as much as ability.
“It does. It just does,” Carroll said. “It’s like the time that Marquise was out, too. You can’t establish enough of a routine with a guy to know where he is and how far along he is, and will he respond well, that kind of stuff. Tactically and technically, all of that. It does factor in.”
But, it is a 16-game regular season. Collier hasn’t missed even a quarter of it yet.
As the rookie said: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Ansah played 19 of the 50 defensive plays against New Orleans Sunday. It was the 30-year-old’s first game in nine months, after shoulder surgery with Detroit then a groin injury in August. Ansah hasn’t averaged as many as 31 snaps per game since 2015, his Pro Bowl season with the Lions.
At the end of the preseason the Seahawks traded with Houston to get Jadeveon Clowney as a bookend edge rusher with Ansah. They played together on 15 of Ansah’s 19 snaps against the Saints. They got no pressures nor hits, let alone sacks, on Bridgewater.
The Saints had their fill-in for injured icon Drew Brees getting passes out so quickly and on so many short passes to running back Alvin Kamara (nine catches), Ansah and Clowney were non-factors in their first game together.
How did his coach assess Ansah’s debut?
Not how he expects to be assessing his defensive end in November.
“He played really hard. He didn’t use a variety of rushes. He just kind of ran in there and played hard and tough,” Carroll said. “The guys he was going against were pretty good.
“He had a couple good rushes. His effort was really consistent. His power was there, too. He didn’t finesse much. He pretty much just power-rushed the whole game. I think if he had to do it again, he’d mix it up a little bit. Some of the stuff he came up with under was effective, but there was only a couple. Pretty straight in the game.
“This is his first game in almost a year. He’s just kind of getting going. It’d be like preseason game one.”
Seattle’s pass rush again didn’t get pressure with just its four linemen. The defensive plan Sunday was to play back in coverage and not blitz Bridgewater, perhaps expecting he would be making quick, short— easier—throws in his second NFL start in four seasons.
The only Seahawk to hit Bridgewater on pass plays Sunday was Quinton Jefferson. The defensive end continued his strong early season by at times moving inside Clowney as a hybrid defensive tackle on passing downs. Clowney did some of that inside Jefferson the previous week at Pittsburgh.
Jefferson had a career game in the opener this month against Cincinnati: a career-best two sacks, six tackles, three quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and two batted-down passes.
Jefferson and Branden Jackson have half of Seattle’s six sacks through three games. Clowney has one. Jefferson’s and Jackson’s production also contributed to the decision to keep Collier inactive against the Saints.
“He did really well again,” Carroll said of Jefferson. “He was probably the most outstanding guy out front, just activity-wise.
“Quinton’s doing a really good job. I just think we’ll say it that way.”
Carroll made it sound on Monday as if Collier being a healthy inactive won’t be a constant, weekly issue to overcome for the Seahawks’ top rookie pick who had been so excited at his debut last week.
“I don’t think we can’t make it up. He’s right on the edge,” Carroll said, “and I expect him to get right back in there and be playing soon.”
