Over the offseason at the NFL owner’s meeting in Boca Raton in March, Falcons coach Dan Quinn included cornerback Jalen Collins in the group of six players he was counting on to elevate their play in 2016.
In April, Collins was suspended for four games for using performing enhancement drugs.
Collins, a second-round pick in 2015 out of LSU, played in all 16 games and made two starts last season. He started two games and finished with 12 tackles and five special-teams tackles.
Collins had offseason foot surgery in 2015 and missed most of the training sessions. He struggled at times in coverage, but was going to get an opportunity to compete for the starting right cornerback.
After serving his suspension, Collins was inactive for the Denver game last week. The Falcons have a plan to loop him back into the action in the secondary.
“He had a good his first week,” Quinn said. “We went with the same group that we had. We put an extra pass rusher up for the game. We thought that would be an important one. That’s how the decision game.”
While suspended, Collins could not be around the team. He worked out at Hammersmith Sports in Norcross.
“I was just doing what I could to stay in shape,” Collins said. “I had to keep my body moving. After that, I was just trying to stay out of trouble. Not being able to be around the guys was definitely tough.”
He watched the team from afar.
“They have been doing a great job,” Collins said. “They’ve done what they needed to do to get the wins.”
The decision to make Collins inactive for the Denver game was about personnel.
“He looked good in his first week,” Quinn said. “He’s back up and we’ll take him all the way through the process again. He could very well be up and active this week. It’s just depending on the personnel packages that we want to match up against.”
When pressed, Quinn was quick to point out that Collins’ was not in the dog house.
“We were pleased with his first week of work,” Quinn said. “He came in fit. He came in in shape. There was not a lot of rust to knock off to get him ready.”
