NFL Draft Prospects 2019: Edge Rusher - L.J. Collier, TCU

L.J. Collier didn’t start a single game during his first three years with the Horned Frogs but was a quality rotational player until he broke out in the Alamo Bowl versus Stanford to wrap up his junior campaign, when he got a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss. Last season he started to really emerge with 11.5 tackles for loss, six sacks and four passes broken up, which earned him first-team All-Big XII honors.

This dude just jumped off the screen all Senior Bowl week long, which made me go back to his tape. Outside of what he did in one-on-ones, he sniffed out some bootlegs and stayed home to force throws into the dirt during team drills- Collier is a twitched up athlete who won’t be moved in the run game. He sets a stonewall edge with violent hands and keeps his outside arm free at all times to own the point of attack. At the same time, he can shoot through one shoulder of the blocker and create instant penetration in the run game when lined up on the interior or slanting inside.

Sometimes you feel like the offense has something going on at the play-side, but number 91 all of a sudden just pushes somebody into the running back from the backside and makes him change directions. Collier smacks pulling guards in the backfield and just shuts down any momentum. He has surprising range as a tackler when you feel like the ball-carrier is past him, but the big guy wrestles him down from behind somehow.

Collier may be the most devastating bull-rusher coming off the edge in this draft class, putting several guys at 300+ pounds on their asses and just breaking their anchor. He makes it even harder for blockers to stand in against him because he does that one-two step before going through their chest, which forces them to step their feet for a split-second.

Collier then can use the lean of opponents against them, pulling cloth and getting them off himself, which gives him a more direct angle towards the quarterback or just opens up an inside path. It is incredible when you see how many offensive tackles duck their heads against the TCU defender and try to put everything they have into resistance.

What I love about him is that he doesn’t try to get around his guy once he’s by the QB – if he has to, he will take them both down at the same time. Collier can change things up with a quick up-and-under to catch them off balance, which forces them to grab whatever they can on his way past. He might not have the best jump off the snap, but his second, third and fourth step are outstanding, leading to 54 total pressures last season. When he is asked to chip tight-ends off the snap, those guys absolutely stop for a second.

This young man is consistently late off the ball with poor snap anticipation and doesn’t show great explosiveness once he does get out of his stance. He doesn’t always stay true to his assignment and tries to see what’s going in the backfield while freelancing a little bit. He is very raw as a pass rusher when he doesn’t win with power and should add some pieces to his arsenal going forward.

Collier was asked to drop into coverage every once in the while with TCU, but I don’t see the change-of-direction ability to not play with his hand in the dirt. With just one year of starting experience, you can question why he didn’t crack the starting lineup before last season.

I really like what I saw from Collier watching tape, but I keep going back to his performance at the Senior Bowl, because there were highly limited deep drop-back snaps in the Big XII. He has a way of getting home late in reps with his hands and beats the guards with quickness on the inside.

Collier absolutely killed some of the most talented kids on the O-line had one heck of a week overall down in Mobile. He might be able to put on a couple of pounds and be a disruptive 3-technique at the next level if he wanted to as well. He definitely needs to come off the ball with better timing and first step explosion, but the power is off the charts.

Grade: Late second