Jalen Collins has reportedly been suspended for the first 10 games of the 2018 NFL season. The former Atlanta Falcons cornerback and current free agent has just put a serious dent in his chances of signing a deal with a new NFL team with his latest suspension. Is this the end of the road for the former college star?

Collins is a man without a team

According to a Yahoo! Sports report, via ESPN’s Field Yates, Collins will once again be spending more time off of the gridiron than on next season, a pattern that is becoming all too familiar for the former LSU Tigers standout.

Yates Tweeted late yesterday afternoon that Collins, a second-round selection for the Atlanta Falcons in 2015, will miss the first 10 games of the 2018 NFL season. Unfortunately for Collins, this may be the final straw for him in the NFL.

Off-field more than on

Collins’ latest suspension will be his fourth in his short NFL career. No matter how talented a player is, no team in the league is going to sign someone if he is being suspended nearly every time he tries to make a comeback.

Collins missed the first four games of the 2016 season due to suspension, then matters got worse in 2017 when he had to sit out the first 10 games as well.

Eventually, he was suspended for four more games that season and never ended up playing a single down. Collins never saw the field in 2017 and was finally released by the Atlanta Falcons last November.

In his first three full seasons in the NFL, Collins has only suited up for 24 of the possible 48 regular season contests for the Falcons.

Now you can never say never, but his track record leads most NFL experts to believe that his playing days may be coming to an end well before they should.

The once promising star has been suspended for violating both the league’s substance-abuse policies and the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy more times in his first three seasons than most players do in a career.

The sad part is the man has talent. Collins was a starter for the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51 against the New England Patriots. He played very well in that game, making a couple key knockdowns and totaling 11 tackles. It will be interesting to see if a team gives Collins a chance next season.

Will the Atlanta Falcons draft a cornerback or two this coming April to replace Collins? Desmond Trufant, Robert Alford, and company did very well in 2017 for Atlanta during Collins' suspension.
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