Seattle Seahawks

Alex Collins: Beastmode Jr.?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Seattle Seahawks rookie running back Alex Collins made the Week 1 roster against incredible odds. The 53rd-man on the roster has a lot to prove.

Meet the new running back for the Seattle Seahawks: Alex Collins. He was the first true freshman to start his career with three 100-yard performances since Adrian Peterson in 2004.

In his first two years on the team, Collins stacked up more than 1,000 yards each year (1,026 with 4 TD in 2013, 1,100 with 12 TD in 2014), joining Darren McFadden as the only Arkansas backs to do so, even though he shared the field with running mate Jonathan Williams.

When Williams went down with an injury in 2015, Collins’s carries increased from 204 in 2014 to 271 in 2015 as did his production (1,577 yards, 20 TD).

 Collins made the jump to the NFL after his junior year and he just made the 53-man roster over Troymaine Pope a few days ago. In his last preseason game, he didn’t have a lot of runs for big yardage, but the runs he did have made an impact on not only the game but the coaches and front office as well.

His quest to make the team wasn’t easy to say the least. For starters, he was drafted in the fifth-round, so of course, he was going to have to prove himself.

He wasn’t vying for just a spot, as some running backs do, but he was vying for the last spot. Pete Carroll and John Schneider keep an average of 4.2 running backs on the roster, and that’s including a fullback.

He was up against the established starter, Thomas Rawls, who was guaranteed a roster spot. Then, he was competing against Christine Michael, who simply needed to show that his performance last year wasn’t a one-season thing.

Then he had the third-round pick C.J. Prosise, who also was already a number in the 53. That’s three spots down, one to go. So Collins had to run to prove that he deserved the fourth spot and not Pope.

Collins began to give his reasons during the game last Thursday night in Oakland. His best performance of the preseason came in a meaningless game, but he made the 40 yards and  touchdown he racked up definitely mean something.

It was close to being too-little-too-late, but a few of the runs Collins had in Oakland were the kind of runs that were the norm for him at Arkansas.

People wanted to give Rawls the “Baby Lynch” nickname last year, but with the way Collins ran in college and in this last preseason game especially, we may have to find Rawls a new moniker.

This video showcases a few of his runs during his junior season at the University of Arkansas

We’re excited to see just what Alex Collins is going to bring to the field. Hopefully, a lot more powerful beast mode like runs.

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