The Seahawks have made the decision to decline the fifth-year option of the rookie contract for defensive end L.J. Collier, according to Charean Williams of NBC Sports. The writing was on the wall for the former first-round draft pick out of TCU, as Collier’s stock has been trending slowly down since his inception in the league. 
After spending most of his rookie season on the sideline with an injury, Collier started every game in his sophomore season. The full year in a starting position only yielded 3.0 sacks, 4.0 tackles for loss, and 7 quarterback hits.
Throughout the beginning of this past season, Collier was named a healthy-scratch in seven of the first ten games. Newly acquired defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche subbed in for Collier and, by the end of September, Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton said that Nkemdiche had surpassed Collier on the depth chart.
It’s unclear whether the 26-year-old will be able to drum up any interest in the trade market, after failing to do so during the season last year, but, unless Collier has a 2022 NFL season to remember, it may be his last in Seattle.
Shocker! If only they could decline the first four years too!
I’m sad to say that a lot of us saw this coming. The pick surprised all of us when it happened, and didn’t deliver the same surprise in terms of production. But there have been other high Seahawks picks to earn a second contract in their make it or break it year (like Rashaad Penny), so perhaps there is some hope that Collier can do the same, but I’m not expecting that. Not starting will obviously make that extremely difficult. The fact that Seattle picked two edge defenders (one of them, Boye Mafe, was a highly regarded talent and should start) makes Collier’s resurgence pretty unlikely.
Collier won’t play edge in the new system. Still unlikely he breaks out though
LJ “Healthy Scratch” Collier will probably play “left out” in the new system.