NFL Draft
12/22/24
6 min read
Alfred Collins 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Texas Longhorns NT
Height: 6050 (unofficial)
Weight: 320lbs (unofficial)
Year: Fifth-Year Senior
Pro Comparison: Akiem Hicks
Scouting Overview
Texas Longhorns defensive tackle Alfred Collins blossomed in 2024 to showcase some dominant point-of-attack work in the trenches. Collin carries his weight well and showcases tremendous hand power to disrupt offensive line flow and create knockback at the point of attack.
This is one of the better block destroyers in the class of 2025 — he’s proficient in lock-peek-shed techniques and a viable two-gap talent for gap control defenses. Collins does have notable room for growth as a pass rusher. He’s currently a limited pass-rush talent with a sufficient first step but not a lot of consistency in how he attacks pass sets on the interior.
His early role for an NFL defense will likely hold run-down value, but his valuation should still account for how he’ll make his linebackers better and how clean they’ll be kept playing behind him.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Just has splendid stack and shed ability at the point of attack and offers elite length and hand power
- Sturdy, dense build that offers major short area power and pure strength
- Offers legitimate alignment versatility to play in the A or B gaps or, alternatively, play overtop of tackles in odd fronts
Negatives
- Limited pass rush profile due to some hip tightness and modest first-step explosiveness
- At times struggles with pad level and offers up a big blocking surface when undisciplined
- One-year sample size of dominance despite extensive playing career at Texas
Background
Collins is from Bastrop, TX, and played high school football for Cedar Creek HS. Collins played basketball and football plus ran track at Cedar Creek, a testament to his overall athleticism — but he shined brightest collecting big accolades in the factory that is Texas high school football. Collins was rated as a 5-star recruit (247 Sports) while collecting All-State and All-American honors while also being selected to play in the 2020 All-American Bowl in 2020.
Collins continued his family lineage at Texas. His mother was a standout basketball player in the early 90s, and Alfred committed to play for the Longhorns and joined the team as a member of the recruiting class of 2020. Collins joined the defensive rotation as a true freshman and played in 10 games during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, maintaining his four years of eligibility entering 2021.
He was an intermittent starter and constant in the defensive rotation in 2021 and 2022 before earning All Big-12 Honorable Mention in 2023 while starting six games and playing alongside top-50 picks Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat for the Longhorns. He ultimately returned for a fifth season and assumed a larger opportunity in 2024 — making major strides in his game to catapult his stock.
Tale Of The Tape
If your team is in need of some added teeth and punch in the trenches, you’ve come to the right place. Collins has emerged this season as one of the nation’s best gap-control defenders and completely bullies interior blockers working the point of attack.
Collins has illustrated the ability to shut down interior run schemes and wreck shop as both an A or B gap defender thanks in large part to his potent punch power, prototypical length, and raw strength to toss around linemen. Collins’ potential has always been evident, but this season has seen him explode to new heights and have more consistency in his play.
This is not an easy defender to move. Collins holds the anchor ability of a true nose tackle despite his looming frame, and he is quick to identify and attack creases in double teams in order to split blocks and uncover before pursuing the football. Collins absorbs lateral contact well and showcases the core strength necessary to continue pressing forward or holding his ground while resetting his hands to diagnose the block.
His point-of-attack resume is impressive for how well he leverages his hands, utilizes his length and separation, and then promptly and cleanly discards defenders in order to uncover the hole and challenge the ball carrier. In these instances, his wingspan and lateral mobility are enough of a blend to offer him a significant area of influence along the point of attack — he owns a large plot of land in the heart of the line of scrimmage and is capable of diverting run schemes into that area completely.
There’s enough hip and ankle mobility for some cornering ability, but Collins is much more impactful on shallow angles and in linear opportunities when firing out of the blocks. The ability to win as a pass rusher will be predicated on bull rush opportunities or with well-timed hand counters.
Collins has flashed the ability to win with swipes and clubs — these hand counters are amplified by his natural power to pull linemen off their center of gravity. On his opportunities to flatten steep angles, Collins will, at times, lose his footing after contorting his frame due to some tightness in his ankles.
This is a matchup nightmare for most centers across the league, as a run defender and pass rusher. If teams are willing to work in 5-0 fronts or mug linebackers frequently enough to prompt man protection from opposing offenses, they can scheme enough head-up rush opportunities that turn Collins loose on a center; his power and length are problematic here. I appreciate how Collins also shows the awareness to get his hands up into throwing windows if he’s not capable of playing to half a man and getting push to the quarterback.
Collins isn’t as physically overwhelming as his former teammate T’Vondre Sweat, but he’s illustrated comparable point-of-attack skills as a run defender. This gives him a high floor and a direct path to a role at the NFL level. The valuation of his skill set will have less to do with his ability to execute his role and more with the value of his role relative to snap counts and opportunity cost.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Collins’ leap in play at the point of attack this year has him poised to thrive in a gap-control defense.
He’s not twitchy or dynamic enough to shine in a penetration front, but Collins has the run defending skills to shine as an A-gap run defender at the NFL while afforded the opportunity to continue to develop into a potential every-down role. Consider him an early down player and a viable starter in base as a rookie.
Grade: 78.00/100.00, Second Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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