The 29-year-old Collins was traded for in the middle of the 2016 season and given a four-year contract worth over ten million dollars a season after the 2016 campaign by then head of football operations Sashi Brown.
Collins played every game last season posting over 70 solo tackles, thirteen of those for loss, four sacks, and an interception- solid numbers, but nothing spectacular from a player receiving over ten million dollars for those statistics.
Collins had also shown questionable effort at times and on a team on the upswing, John Dorsey simply will not tolerate those types of problems.
The Browns will save nine million dollars on the cap by releasing Collins as the major part of his contract was frontloaded against the cap.
Collins would have counted as eleven and a half million against the cap for the Browns, had he started the season.
The Browns can't be criticized for not wanting to pay Collins such a large amount of money all things considered, but the team certainly has to add help at linebacker now with only Joe Schobert returning as a starter and one not coming off an injury as Christian Kirksey will continue to recover from his season-ending hamstring injury.
Cleveland and their abundant cap space have been connected to both of the standout free agent linebackers available in rumors as both Baltimore's C.J. Mosley and Minnesota's Anthony Barr could be objects of the Browns interest.
Both Mosley and Barr would bring an aspect of their game that the Browns could use as Barr is the superior pass rusher and slightly better in pass coverage, while Mosley is far better against the run, has been the most consistent performer and has the advantage of weakening a division rival as well as experience in the division.
Barr could bring the pass rushing ability off the rush that the Browns paid for yet never received from Jamie Collins opposite Myles Garrett, but Mosley brings the capability of covering the entire field in the run game and is the type of player that brings respect both in the locker room and from the opposition.
I'd be fine with either, but if forced to choose between the two and assuming the price is similar, I'd slightly lean towards Mosley.
The Browns have also been rumored to have shown interest in the draft's top linebacker in LSU's Devin White, although White may have taken himself out of availability for Cleveland at pick number 17 after a tremendous combine workout series.
The Browns have been flying all over Twitter last night with unnamed rumors from established NFL writers so there could be something in the works- If that's the case, I'll be here with some thoughts, of course.
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