Dallas Cowboys Struggles: Mistake to let Maliek Collins go in free agency?

Should the Dallas Cowboys have re-signed Maliek Collins in free agency?

The Dallas Cowboys have an overabundance of problems on defense this season but none more obvious than the interior of their defensive line. The play at defensive tackle this year has made it virtually impossible for the Cowboys to get stops. It’s stifled the ability of the linebacker corps and positioned the Cowboys dead last in run defense this season.

The regression from last season is substantial. Tackles are unable to maintain gap responsibility. They have been physically overmatched and outwitted at every turn. This embarrassing decline at DT has caused some to question whether or not the Cowboys should have let Maliek Collins, last season’s starting DT, leave in free agency.

Without Collins next to him, Antwaun Woods has clearly struggled. The man once referred to as “a trash can full of dirt” hasn’t been his usual unmovable self as of late. So it makes sense that some look at Collins’ departure for a possible reason this Cowboys interior is so bad.

But it doesn’t take much digging to find that Collins’ departure is clearly not the problem in Dallas. And had Dallas re-signed their former starter, they’d likely be in worse shape (if that’s possible).

Which interior defensive linemen have succeeded most in recording pressures and tackles this season?

Orange lines reflect the average interior defender. Up & right is a high frequency of both, down & left is low frequency of both. pic.twitter.com/YgYLo78JLt
— Anthony Reinhard (@reinhardNFL) December 17, 2020

From a production standpoint, Maliek Collins is arguably the worst DT in the NFL. He’s bad at producing pressure and even worse at stopping the run. In the chart above you can see his pressure rate is right below 3% while his run stopping is at just 5%.

Some of that is surprising and some of that, not-so-much. Last season in Dallas, Collins was in the top-5 in the NFL for most of the season in interior linemen pressure rate. He was excellent at creating pressure in less than 2.5 seconds and played fairly consistently all season.

He was also a hot mess against the run (something that continued this season). Collins frequently gambled and lost making it quite clear his attention was on penetration and not playing the run.