NO SAFETY NET
Collins: Lack of vets may hurt Jets’ duo
Landon Collins made the Pro Bowl last season, his second in the NFL, establishing himself as one of the most dynamic playmaking safeties in the league.
It didn’t, however, come that easily for Collins, who struggled at times in his rookie year.
There were moments in 2015 when it was difficult to foresee the five interceptions, four sacks and 125 tackles he delivered in 2016 en route to being voted first-team All-Pro.
That’s why, for example, Collins empathizes with Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye, the two safeties the Jets drafted in the first and second rounds, respectively.
When asked Thursday — while doing a media tour around Manhattan to promote the First Annual Landon Collins Celebrity Softball Game on June 2 at Palisades Credit Union Park in Pomona, N.Y. — what advice he had is for the Jets’ two rookie safeties, Collins referred to his own first-year hiccups.
“There was pressure from the team on me to take over the back end [of the secondary], but I didn’t have any old heads [veterans] that could coach me up on the field and teach me about the quarterbacks. I was out there on the field trying to figure it out. I basically felt like I was on my own.”
With the Jets having purged their roster of veterans, Adams and Maye will find themselves in a similar situation to Collins. The Jets, who already released cornerback Darrelle Revis this offseason, on Thursday cut veteran safety Marcus Gilchrist. So the two Jets rookie safeties will have no veteran safety net on the field.
“As a rookie, you’ve got to try and get the knowledge of the game down as quickly as you can,” Collins said.
He attributed his dramatic secondyear breakout season to “knowledge of the game, knowing the defense.
“Once you know that you can start looking at different parts of the game and it just happens for you, because you can play fast,” he said.
“My first year, we weren’t that strong on the D-line and didn’t get JPP [Jason Pierre-Paul] until late in the year to give us some pass rush.
“It’s the same for [Adams and Maye]. I don’t know if their D-line is that strong since we took Snacks [Damon Harrison] from them. I don’t know how strong their linebackers and corners are, so they’re going to have nobody on the field that can coach them up.
“They’ve got to buy into the coaching staff and learn the defense as fast as they can. The quicker you know the defense the easier it is.”
Asked if he feels pressure to back up his gaudy numbers from last season, Collins said, “I’m not worried about the numbers. that stuff comes with patience. It’s going to come more easily for me because I know the game now.”
One player from last week’s draft Collins knows a lot about is Dalvin Tomlinson, the defensive tackle the Giants picked in the second round out of Alabama, where Collins was his teammate.
Asked what Giants fans can expect from Tomlinson, Collins said, “Strength, power and knowledge. He’ll bulldoze people over and get to the quarterback and he can definitely stop the run.”