Landon Collins: Algiers to the NFL

Algiers to the NFL

Landon Collins was born in New Orleans in 1994 and grew up in Algiers, on the West Bank side of the river. He was a kid from the neighborhood, playing football on the same fields where generations of New Orleans athletes had grown up dreaming about making it to the next level.

Then Katrina hit. Collins was eleven years old in 2005, and like hundreds of thousands of other New Orleanians, his family was displaced. They relocated to Geismar, Louisiana, and Collins finished growing up there. But the foundation — the toughness, the work ethic, the chip on the shoulder that comes from growing up in New Orleans — was already set.

At Alabama, Collins became one of the most dominant safeties in college football. He was a unanimous All-American in 2014 and helped the Crimson Tide win the 2013 BCS National Championship. The New York Giants took him with the thirty-third pick in the 2015 draft, and he immediately became one of the best defensive players in the NFL.

His 2016 season was historic. Collins recorded 125 tackles, five interceptions, and four sacks — becoming the only player in NFL history to post over 100 solo tackles, more than two sacks, at least five interceptions, and a minimum of twelve pass deflections in a single season. He was named First-Team All-Pro and NFC Defensive Player of the Year. Three Pro Bowl selections followed.

Collins went on to sign a massive contract with Washington before eventually returning to the Giants in 2022. His career trajectory — from Algiers to Alabama to the biggest stages in pro football — is a story that's been repeated by New Orleans athletes for generations. The city produces football players the way it produces musicians: with a natural gift and a refusal to be denied.

Katrina scattered a lot of New Orleans kids across the country. Landon Collins is proof that you can take a kid out of New Orleans, but you can't take New Orleans out of the kid.