Like so many young football fans born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Landon Collins grew up idolizing the late, great Sean Taylor. Unlike an overwhelming majority of those youngsters, though, Collins actually has the chance to follow in his favorite player's footsteps as a superstar safety for the Washington Redskins.
After signing the three-time Pro Bowler to a record six-year, $84 million deal, the Redskins are hardly shying away from comparisons between Collins and Taylor, either. In fact, the team is supposedly considering making Collins the first player to wear Taylor's No. 21 since the latter's death, a potential honor that would obviously mean a lot to him.
"I hope."
– Landon Collins when asked if he'll be the first Redskins player to wear #21 since Sean Taylor's death.Collins says he cried when given an autographed Taylor #21 jersey last night.
"Couldn't move. Shaking."
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) March 14, 2019
Collins is the latest in an ongoing line of Redskins safeties who looked up to Taylor. He was also a personal favorite of the since-departed D.J. Swearinger and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Collins didn't just gravitate toward Taylor because the two played the same position, though. As he said on NFL Network leading up to the 2015 draft, the Alabama product has been a Redskins fan his entire life.
“I grew up a Redskins fan,” he said, per the Washington Post. “I was a big Sean Taylor and Clinton Portis fan. Those were my two favorite players, so I grew up watching them play for the Redskins, so that would be my dream, to play there.”
Dreams, apparently, really do come true. The next one for Collins to realize? His destiny as the rightful heir to Taylor as an all-time great Washington safety – wearing No. 21 or otherwise.
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