 Collins with theWashington Redskins in2007 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 15, 10, 14 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position | Quarterback | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1971-11-05)November 5, 1971 (age 54) Walpole, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 223 lb (101 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Walpole | ||||||||||||||
| College | Michigan (1990–1994) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1995: 2nd round, 45th overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Todd Steven Collins (born November 5, 1971) is an American former professional[1]football player who was aquarterback in theNational Football League (NFL). He playedcollege football for theMichigan Wolverines and was selected by theBuffalo Bills in the second round of the1995 NFL draft.
Collins also played for theKansas City Chiefs andWashington Redskins. After beginning his career as theheir apparent toJim Kelly and largely failing in that position, he spent the rest of his NFL career as a backup quarterback, spending several years serving behindElvis Grbac andTrent Green of the Chiefs. He holds the NFL record for longest gap between starts in post-merger history, ten years and two days. Collins is now the offensive coordinator for the Walpole High School varsity football team.[2]
Collins was born inWalpole, Massachusetts. Collins attended Walpole High School, located just a few miles fromFoxboro, Massachusetts, the home of theNew England Patriots. As a senior he led hisfootball team to a state championship, a feat that helped earn him SuperPrep All-America honors. Collins was namedNew England Player of the Year by theBoston Globe.
As a junior, he held a 10–0 record for thebaseball team as a right-handedpitcher. Also that year, he guided hisbasketball squad to the state semifinals, garnering 18 points and 10rebounds a game along the way.
Collins attended and played football at theUniversity of Michigan from 1990 to 1994, though he wasredshirted as a freshman in 1990. He completed one of two passes in theRose Bowl as a redshirt freshman on January 1, 1992, after netting 15 completions on 24 attempts for 135 yards during the regular season. Collinsstarted two games as a sophomore in 1992 when he completed 66 of 101 passes for 693 yards with seventouchdowns and threeinterceptions. As anAll-Big Ten Conference Honorable Mention and Academic All-Big Ten as a junior in 1993, he led the squad to a 42–7Hall of Fame Bowl victory overNC State. His best collegiate season came that junior year when he hit on 189 of 296 attempts for 2,509 yards with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. In his senior season (1994), he connected on 186 of 288 attempts for 2,518 yards with 13 touchdowns and ten interceptions en route to a 24–14Holiday Bowl win overColorado State. Collins' collegiate passing totals read 457 completions on 711 attempts for 5,858 yards with 37 touchdowns and 20 interceptions, which comes out to a 145.0 career quarterback efficiency rating. Collins and Michigan's 1994 squad are most remembered for beatingNotre Dame on a last second field goal byRemy Hamilton and for losing toColorado onKordell Stewart'sHail Mary pass known as theMiracle at Michigan.
Collins was selected in the1995 NFL draft by theBuffalo Bills in the second round with the 45th overall pick.[3] In 1995, he earned the Bills backup job, playing in seven games with one start. That season, he hit on 14 of 29 attempts for 112 yards with one interception. In 1996, Collins was the number two Bills quarterback behindJim Kelly, and saw action in seven games (three starts), completing 55 of 99 attempts (55.6%) with four touchdowns and five interceptions.
Collins was considered Kelly'sheir apparent when Kelly announced his retirement following the 1996 season. In 1997, he won the Bills starting job at quarterback after beating outAlex Van Pelt andBilly Joe Hobert intraining camp and saw duty in 14 games (13 starts) where he completed 215 of 391 passes (55.0%), good for 2,367 yards with 12 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. Under Collins's leadership, the Bills missed the playoffs for only the second time since 1988, prompting the Bills to release Collins after one season as starter and signRob Johnson andDoug Flutie as his replacements.
Collins signed with theKansas City Chiefs in 1998, where he did not see any regular season game action the first three seasons. For his first three seasons, Collins was the third-string quarterback behindRich Gannon andWarren Moon. Between 2001 and 2005, he was listed as the Chiefs’ backup quarterback in all the games, seeing action in 12 games.[4]
On March 14, 2006, Collins was signed by the Washington Redskins to a two-year, $2.5 million contract. Collins was brought in becauseoffensive coordinatorAl Saunders had knowledge of Collins and knew he could assist as a signal caller and backup.
On December 6, 2007, Collins replaced Redskins quarterbackJason Campbell, who was injured. Taking charge of a team depleted by injuries and drained by the shooting death ofsafetySean Taylor nine days earlier, Collins completed 15 of 20 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Redskins to a 24–16 victory. Collins wonNFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance against theChicago Bears. CoachJoe Gibbs was particularly pleased with the performance, saying "I don't know that I've ever had a better performance coming off the bench. Ever."[5]
Following the victory over the Chicago Bears (which improved the Redskins to 6–7), Collins led the Redskins to three more consecutive victories to close out the regular season. Those victories were over theNew York Giants, theMinnesota Vikings, and a 27–6 win over theDallas Cowboys in the season finale. The Redskins' four straight victories at the end of the season left them with a 9–7 record, securing the Redskins' bid for awild cardplayoff berth against theSeattle Seahawks. Collins finished the season with a quarterback rating of 106.4. Following completion of the regular season, he was voted NFC Offensive Player of the Month for December.
In the wild card playoff game against the Seahawks, Collins completed 29 of 50 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter, both of which were returned for touchdowns by the Seahawks defense. These were Collins' first interceptions since the 1997 season. The Redskins lost the game by a score of 35–14, eliminating them from further postseason competition.
In 2008 and 2009, Collins again backed up Jason Campbell. On February 29, 2008, despite interest from theJacksonville Jaguars, Collins was re-signed by the Redskins. His three-year contract was worth an estimated $9 million.[6] Collins took no snaps in the 2008 season. In the 2009 season he saw action in three games as a backup, throwing 12 for 23 for 144 yards. On October 3, 2009, Collins said he would retire after the2009 NFL season.[2] On March 4, 2010, Collins was released by the Redskins.
In August 2010, Collins was signed by theChicago Bears to a one-year deal.[7] Terms of the deal were not disclosed.[8] He started their fourth preseason game. Collins made the roster as the second-string quarterback afterJay Cutler and ahead ofCaleb Hanie. Collins played for the Bears in the fourth game of the season, beginning the second half of the Week 4 matchup against theNew York Giants when starter Jay Cutler suffered a concussion in the first half. Collins finished that game 4 for 11 for 36 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. The Bears lost 17–3, their first loss of the season, falling to 3–1. He would fill in for Cutler in Week 5 against theCarolina Panthers. In that start, Collins completed six of 16 passes for 32 yards, threw fourinterceptions and had apasser rating of 6.2. He was relieved at the end of the third quarter byCaleb Hanie. The Bears won 23–6.[9] Collins also saw limited action in the Bears' 21–14 NFC Championship game loss to the Packers, relieving the injured Cutler in the third quarter before being replaced by Hanie after suffering a shoulder injury. This was the final game of his career.
| Year | Team | GP | GS | Comp | Att | Pct | Yds | Avg | TD | Int | Rate | Lng |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | BUF | 7 | 1 | 14 | 29 | 48.3% | 112 | 3.9 | 0 | 1 | 44.0 | 18 |
| 1996 | BUF | 7 | 3 | 55 | 99 | 55.6% | 739 | 7.5 | 4 | 5 | 71.9 | 95 |
| 1997 | BUF | 14 | 13 | 215 | 391 | 55.0% | 2,367 | 6.1 | 12 | 13 | 69.5 | 77 |
| 1998 | KC | 0 | 0 | DNP | ||||||||
| 1999 | KC | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 2000 | KC | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 2001 | KC | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 75.0% | 40 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 | 106.2 | 26 |
| 2002 | KC | 3 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 83.3% | 73 | 12.2 | 1 | 0 | 156.9 | 29 |
| 2003 | KC | 5 | 0 | 9 | 12 | 75.0% | 74 | 6.2 | 0 | 0 | 90.3 | 20 |
| 2004 | KC | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 20.0% | 42 | 8.4 | 0 | 0 | 62.1 | 42 |
| 2005 | KC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2006 | WAS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007 | WAS | 4 | 3 | 67 | 105 | 63.8% | 888 | 8.5 | 5 | 0 | 106.4 | 54 |
| 2008 | WAS | 0 | 0 | DNP | ||||||||
| 2009 | WAS | 3 | 0 | 12 | 23 | 52.2% | 144 | 6.3 | 0 | 0 | 71.6 | 46 |
| 2010 | CHI | 2 | 1 | 10 | 27 | 37.0% | 68 | 2.5 | 0 | 5 | 5.9 | 19 |
| Career | 51 | 21 | 391 | 701 | 55.8 | 4,547 | 6.5 | 22 | 24 | 71.8 | 95 | |