Player
Maliek Collins
DL/DT · 49ers
Maliek Collins: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
38.0 career sacks across 10 seasons and 5 teams as an interior-only rusher.
TrendCollins by season (regular season)
| Season | Team | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | DAL | 5.0 | 14 | 5 |
| 2017 | DAL | 2.5 | 9 | 4 |
| 2018 | DAL | 4.0 | 9 | 7 |
| 2019 | DAL | 4.0 | 10 | 6 |
| 2020 | LV | 0.0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | HOU | 2.5 | 7 | 9 |
| 2022 | HOU | 3.5 | 10 | 9 |
| 2023 | HOU | 5.0 | 19 | 9 |
| 2024 | SF | 5.0 | 12 | 5 |
| 2025 | CLE | 6.5 | 13 | 7 |
Collins's career is the *steady interior 3-tech* archetype — 38.0 sacks over 10 years, never more than 6.5 in a season. He's been the type of player you can plug into any front and get ~4-5 sacks plus disruption underneath.
The 2020 Raiders year was a complete washout (0 sacks, 1 QB hit in just 15 recorded plays) — the only blank year of his career. Everything before and since has been baseline NFL starter production.
Sacks per season
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 5 |
| 2017 | 2.5 |
| 2018 | 4 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2.5 |
| 2022 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 5 |
| 2024 | 5 |
| 2025 | 6.5 |
61 career TFL — the run-stuffing side of his game has held up across every team change.
MilestoneCollins career resume
| Stat | Career |
|---|---|
| Sacks | 38.0 |
| QB Hits | 104 |
| TFL | 61 |
| Solo Tackles | 147 |
| Asst Tackles | 107 |
| Fumble Recoveries | 9 |
| Forced Fumbles | 1 |
The 61 TFL and 104 QB hits tell the actual story better than the sack count — he's been a steady run-game disruptor more than a pure pass rusher. The 9 fumble recoveries is unusually high for a defensive lineman; only a handful of DT-eligible players hit 9+ recoveries in the same window.
The 2023 Texans season (5 sacks, 19 QB hits, 9 TFL) was peak Collins as a pressure generator — his career-high in QB hits by 5.
2020 Raiders: 15 plays, 0 sacks, 1 QB hit. The lost season between two productive runs.
AnomalyCollins signed a 1-year, $6M deal with the Raiders in 2020 that became one of the cleaner free-agency busts of the era. The database has him on just 15 defensive plays that year — likely the result of a pectoral injury suffered early in camp/season.
The Texans signed him for 2021 as a low-cost rebuild, and he rewarded that call with three increasingly productive seasons (2.5 → 3.5 → 5.0 sacks) before landing deals with the 49ers in 2024 and the Browns in 2025.
Dallas era (2016-2019): 15.5 sacks. Post-Dallas (2020-2025): 22.5 sacks.
SplitEra split — Cowboys vs after
| Era | Seasons | Sacks | QB Hits |
|---|---|---|---|
| DAL (2016-2019) | 4 | 15.5 | 42 |
| LV+HOU+SF+CLE (2020-2025) | 6 | 22.5 | 62 |
The Dallas years were Collins's developmental arc — a 3rd-round pick in 2016 who started as a rookie and grew slowly. After the 2020 lost year, his post-Cowboys production (22.5 sacks across 4 teams) has actually outpaced his Dallas baseline on a per-season basis.
His 2025 line of 6.5 sacks already is on track to be a career high — at age 30, still finding peak years.
5 different teams over 10 seasons — Dallas, Las Vegas, Houston, San Francisco, now Cleveland.
RareCollins's team tour
| Years | Team | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-2019 | DAL | 15.5 |
| 2020 | LV | 0.0 |
| 2021-2023 | HOU | 11.0 |
| 2024 | SF | 5.0 |
| 2025 | CLE | 6.5 |
Five teams in a decade is unusual for an interior lineman with this kind of *consistent middle-tier* production. Collins has typically signed one-and-two-year deals rather than long-term commitments — a profile where teams price in his ceiling at exactly what it has been: a reliable 4-5 sack, 10+ QB hit rotational starter.
The Browns gambit in 2025 is paying off — his 6.5 sacks already is the most he's produced for any team after Dallas.
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