Cowboys Rumors: La’el Collins to Be Released After Exploring Trade Market

AP Photo/Matt Patterson

Offensive tackle La’el Collins has never played for an NFL team outside of the Dallas Cowboys for his entire career, but that will reportedly change in 2022.

The Cowboys will reportedly release La’el Collins while making it a post-June 1 designation, per ESPN’s Todd Archer. The move saves the team $10 million against the salary cap for 2022 after spreading the player’s $15.25 million cap hit across the next two seasons. 

Word of the Cowboys moving Collins picked up steam in March when NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported they were “having active trade conversations centered around” him as they looked to make salary-cap moves with him due to make $10 million in base salary in 2022.

The team will instead release the veteran offensive lineman after a roller-coaster 2021 season.

Collins was suspended five games for attempting to bribe an NFL drug-test collector, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He attempted to bribe the collector after he missed multiple tests.

While the NFL Players Association helped reduce an initial five-game suspension to two, Collins then appealed the suspension in front of an arbitrator who both rejected the appeal and then ruled that the suspension should go back to the original five games.

The LSU product was also benched for a time, although he still ended up starting 10 games and appearing in 12.

Pro Football Focus gave him an overall player grade of 82.0, underscoring how effective he was when he was on the field.

Collins was a steady presence up front for the Cowboys for years and started 47 of 48 games from 2017 through 2019. He is also just 28 years old and figures to remain in his prime for the foreseeable future even on a new team.

Dallas seemingly couldn’t find a trade partner, but there should still be significant interest on the open market for the impact player.