Buffalo Bills reportedly agree to sign offensive tackle La’el Collins to 1-year deal

The Buffalo Bills have agreed to sign offensive tackle La’el Collins to a one-year contract, the player’s agent, Peter Schaffer confirmed in a text to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Collins is attempting a return to the NFL after missing all of last season because of a knee injury sustained while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. He closed last season on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad in returning to the team where he spent his first seven NFL seasons.

ESPN.com first reported Collins agreement with Buffalo.

Listed at 6-foot-4 and 320 pounds, Collins has the potential of providing the Bills experienced depth behind returning starters Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown. He also has experience playing left guard during his rookie season, and has 86 starts in 89 career games.

Collins has overcome injuries and off-field issues since breaking into the NFL with Dallas in 2015 as an undrafted free agent out of LSU. He was initially regarded as a top prospect before his draft stock dropped due to an investigation into the murder of Collins’ ex-girlfriend, in which police said he was not a suspect in the shooting.

He missed the 2020 season because of hip surgery.

The following year, he served a five-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. Collins sued the league with two games remaining on the suspension, and court documents in the lawsuit revealed that the NFL accused him of bribing a drug-testing official. Collins’ agent strongly denied the allegations.

Reporting by The Associated Press.