The Buffalo Bills have agreed to sign offensive tackle La’el Collins to a one-year contract, according to the player’s agent, Peter Schaffer, who confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Thursday.
Collins is aiming to make a comeback to the NFL after sitting out the entire previous season due to a knee injury he suffered while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. He finished the season on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, returning to the team where he spent the first seven seasons of his NFL career.
ESPN.com was the first to report Collins’ agreement with Buffalo.
Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 320 pounds, Collins could provide the Bills with valuable experience as a backup to returning starters Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown. He also has the versatility to play left guard, a position he filled during his rookie year, and boasts 86 starts in 89 career games.
Throughout his NFL journey, Collins has faced challenges including injuries and off-field issues since joining the league with Dallas in 2015 as an undrafted free agent from LSU. Despite initially being considered a top prospect, his draft status fell due to an investigation into the murder of his ex-girlfriend, though police clarified that he was not a suspect in the case.
He sat out the 2020 season due to hip surgery and later received a five-game suspension in the following year for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.
Collins contested the suspension through legal action, and during the lawsuit, it was revealed that the NFL accused him of attempting to bribe a drug-testing official. However, Collins’ agent strongly refuted these allegations.
