Maliek Collins
Cleveland BrownsUNDERPAIDModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 12 games
Draft & College
He went about where consensus had him.
Comps
STM Take
Career STTM range stable in the tier 3-5 band across the past five years puts Collins in the small group of structural mid-prime interior defenders with consistent production. The Nebraska Big Ten 3rd-round origin plus 10 years of NFL survival across five teams gives him plug-in veteran market value. The 2026 question is whether Collins holds tier 4 or better at age 30 or whether the structural late-career decline reasserts.
Collins came out of Nebraska as the Dallas Cowboys' 3rd-round pick (67th overall) in 2016 and has bounced through the Cowboys, Raiders, Texans, 49ers, and now Browns across 10 NFL seasons. His STTM career runs tier 5 (#40) in 2021, tier 4 (#29) in 2022, tier 3 (#17) in 2023 with the Texans, tier 5 (#34) in 2024 with the 49ers, and tier 3 (#17) in 2025 with Cleveland.
Strengths
- Career STTM range stable in the tier 3-5 band across five years confirms structural mid-prime IDL ceiling exists across multiple team contexts.
- 10 years of NFL survival as a 3rd-round pick across five systems gives him real veteran market value with the journeyman pattern.
Concerns
- Career STTM range capped at tier 3 (#17) flags the realistic ceiling at top-20 IDL rather than Pro Bowl territory.
- Cleveland's broader defensive identity around Myles Garrett's primary pass-rush priority compresses Collins's snap-share dependency.
What to watch: Whether Collins holds tier 4 or better in 2026 at age 30, the threshold for confirming the mid-prime ceiling is sustained.