Cowboys defensive tackle Maliek Collins excited to face his hometown team

Growing up in Kansas City, Maliek Collins really had no choice but to be a Chiefs fan.

Much like the Dallas Cowboys are to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Chiefs are to KC.

Collins grew up envisioning himself as the next Priest Holmes or Larry Johnson, both All Pro running backs. He remembers watching the likes of Eddie Kennison, Tony Gonzalez and Dante Hall. He knew just how “cold” left tackle and future Hall of Famer Willie Roaf was.

“I used to think I was a little Priest Holmes back in the day,” Collins said, smiling.

Holmes and the rest of his childhood heroes are long gone for the Chiefs now, and Collins finds himself in a different situation. He’ll be trying to stop his hometown team.

Instead of Holmes, the Chiefs boast another elite running back in rookie Kareem Hunt. Hunt leads the league in rushing.

Collins knows it’s his duty to be an interior force keyed on stopping the run. Collins started the season as the under tackle in Rod Marinelli’s Tampa 2 defensive scheme, and has now moved to nose tackle.

Collins views himself long-term as a three-technique, but has embraced his new role.

“I’m a three-technique, but it’s whatever is best for the D-line right now,” Collins said. “I just need to get off. That’s what I do – get off the ball. Everything else will take care of itself. Playing nose is a little bit more read, but I still get off the ball.”

Collins is dealing with a foot injury and didn’t practice Friday, but the expectation is that he plays Sunday. Team owner Jerry Jones said the same thing on his 105.3 The Fan radio show on Friday.

Collins has had quite a journey from KC to the NFL.

He grew up in a more urban area of Kansas City, going to Center High School, a school that had never produced a Division-I football player.

He excelled there in helping his school make the playoffs two times in four years, and was a standout defensive tackle and right offensive tackle. He was also a state champion wrestler.

His high school coach, Bryan DeLong, remembers a district game in which Collins had consecutive tackles for loss on five or six plays.

“Maliek was a grinder,” DeLong said. “He worked and earned everything he got. I really didn’t realize how special he was until he was gone.”

Still, even though Collins’ athleticism and potential jumped off the page to DeLong, he struggled to interest D-1 schools in him. He remembers calling big-time schools within a short drive of KC and couldn’t get any of them to seriously look at Collins.

Of course, once Nebraska got interested, the schools eventually caught on. By that point, though, Collins was headed to Nebraska where he continued to develop and jumped to the NFL after his junior season.

“I can’t believe how hard it was to get schools to look at him at first. I mean, coaches stood us up,” DeLong said. “It’s disappointing when that happens because I’m a straight shooter. And Maliek was a man amongst boys on the field. He also wrestled and he’d just grab kids and throw them around like it was nothing. I don’t know how he flew under the radar because he was a man amongst boys.”

Collins has carried that mentality into the NFL, and has developed into a starting defensive tackle for the Cowboys, who drafted him in the third round in 2016. He has impressed in his first two seasons.

Collins ranks fourth on the team with 2.5 sacks and has been credited with 12 tackles and 11 quarterback pressures by the coaches. The 11 quarterback pressures are third-most on the team.

That production surprises no one who knows Collins’ roots in KC, a town known for its barbecue. For what it’s worth, Collins says he has yet to find a Texas barbecue joint on par with Kansas City.

“It’s not a question,” Collins said.

And there’s no question that the Cowboys are pleased with what Collins has done early on in his time with them. That makes his hometown crowd proud.

“It’s real special to turn on the TV and see 96 on there playing for America’s Team,” DeLong said. “My daughters now love the Cowboys. I’ve become a Cowboys fan in a big way. They do things the right way. They’re about playing good ball.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Cowboys defensive tackle Maliek Collins excited to face his hometown team."