DAK TO ‘D’ FUTURE
Collins offers mates insight into Dallas’ new starting QB
LANDON Collins laughed. “You can’t ask me that question,” he said. I can ask Collins that question — “You’d rather face a rookie on Opening Day than Tony Romo, right?” — because Dak Prescott will be quarterbacking the Cowboys while Romo’s back heals.
I can ask Collins that question because he undoubtedly will be a source of inside information for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, because Collins played against Prescott on Nov. 15, 2014, and sealed a 25-20 Alabama victory over previously unbeaten Mississippi State with a diving interception of a tipped pass, the Tide’s third on a day when Prescott threw two touchdowns and rushed for 82 yards.
“He’s a tough guy,” Collins told The Post. “He’s very elusive as a quarterback, he can take off any moment in the down, and he’s got a big arm, and he’s very good with it and stuff like that. So, that’s what I’d tell my teammates, is just be prepared for that, and he can throw the ball deep.” And he’s a rookie. Advantage, New York Football Giants.
“We’re just gonna be looking for him to make mistakes,” Collins said. “Quarterbacks are gonna make mistakes, especially a rookie, so that’s what we’re gonna feed off of every time.”
Prescott has enjoyed an impressive preseason, but the real bullets have yet to fly.
“Not every team runs the defense that they’re gonna run during the regular season, so you’re not gonna know what you’re gonna see when that time comes,” Collins said. Advantage, Spagnuolo. “Coach Spags is gonna try to throw the playbook at him,” Collins said. “It’s gonna be a surprise because he’s a new quarterback, so ...”
Prescott would have welcomed making his NFL debut against the 2015 Giants. But not the 2016 Giants who have themselves a pass rush again.
“When you say the quarterback has 3-4 seconds to throw the ball and get rid of it, he literally has 3-4 seconds,” Collins said. “He can’t scan the whole field, he has to pick a side and go off those two routes or he has to check it down, it’s that quick, so that’s the best thing about it.”
Collins, miscast as a rookie free safety, is nine pounds lighter and faster and no longer a rookie and appears primed for a breakthrough season at his more natural strong-safety position. He made 112 tackles, but intercepted just one pass in 2015 and now expects more.
“Five would be the minimum, but at least seven,” he said.
As much as a rookie quarterback might dread staring into the teeth of the Big Blue defensive line, Collins loves playing behind it:
Of defensive end Jason PierrePaul, Collins said: “He’s got one of the fastest steps off the ball, and just explosive for a defensive end. He’s more confident because he has his hand back, he doesn’t have a big old club on it, he can use two hands, so he can push people around even more now.”
When asked about defensive end Olivier Vernon, Collins said: “That’s a man! I see him just bully linemen, I mean, over 330pound linemen, just bully ’em. You don’t see that when you have big tackles like that in front of you. He can put one hand in their chest and just bully ’ em all the way to the quarterback, or he even got the finesse or the moves to get around ’ em. That’s a man right there.”
He said Damon “Snacks” Harrison is a “GROWN man, I tell you that much. I never saw a man that could hold a line up like that. ... Sometimes you don’t have to worry about the run, they don’t let things get back to the safeties or the secondary. I have to find out ways to get up there and get in there to make my tackles.”
DT Jonathan Hankins: “He doesn’t get all those double teams, ’ cause last year it was all on him and they were doubleteaming him,” Collins said.
Collins dropped an interception that would have sealed an upset of the Patriots last November. It helped seal Tom Coughlin’s fate instead.
“Last year it bothered me a lot, but I found the way to get over it and use it as a chip on my shoulder ... and be a playmaker,” Collins said. “If you can make those type of plays, you become one of the greats.”
He is determined to become one of the greats.
“I feel fantastic this year because I’m a different player, I go about things differently, and my skill level has improved, especially training with my trainer and my idol, safety Ryan Clark,” Collins said.
In other words, he’s no longer a rookie.