Landon Collins‘ time in New York could be over soon.
The Giants are viewed as unlikely to franchise tag the safety, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport and NFL Network’s Kimberly Jones reported, per sources informed.
New York reportedly loves Collins as a player but view the tag number for safeties ($11.15 million) as too high. If their impasse holds, he’s expected to be free, Rapoport added.
If the Giants do not tag Collins by Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline, as is expected now, he will enter free agency as one of the top safeties available, along with Earl Thomas, Tyrann Mathieu and Lamarcus Joyner.
A three-time Pro Bowler, Collins is the only player in the NFL with at least 400 tackles and 30 passes defensed since 2015. He is the only safety in the league to record at least 95 tackles in each of the last four seasons.
Big Blue reportedly wanted to tag Collins, who was a first-team All-Pro in 2016, but the safety was unlikely to sign the tender and could have sat out New York’s spring and summer programs while the two sides negotiated a long-term deal, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported two weeks ago.
That report came after Collins supposedly cleaned out his locker at the team facility in anticipation of not returning to the team, something the safety playfully refuted on Twitter.
The stuff in that locker that I have left I do not need��
— LANDON COLLINS (@TheHumble_21)
February 20, 2019
Now the contract standoff anticipated by the tabloids won’t come to pass.
Big Blue can always re-sign Collins if the safety market does not prove fruitful, but after this episode, that appears unlikely.
For now, the two sides look to be parting ways, with Collins entering a "significant market" and the Giants a world with Michael Thomas and a player to be named later starting in the defensive backfield.