While Collins has nice burst on his 3rd or 4th step, his initial steps are painfully slow. For this reason, he's a completely ineffective back out of read option looks because they require a RB to be very sudden. Collins also isn't very good as a pure between the tackles power back. See him get planted on his backside that one run? That would never happen to Lynch, or even to most average power runners.
Where Collins does shine (faintly) is in single set back formations where the ball is snapped under center and Collins is very deep behind the LOS. This gives Collins time to hit full speed by the time he takes the handoff, and if you give him a place to run with that modestly good 2nd gear, he can get you some 10-20 yard runs.
It seems Seattle's coaches realized this as well and started giving Collins several single set back looks in a row during the 4th quarter. Not surprisingly, this is when Collins finally started to look like a productive RB.
Unfortunately, these kinds of runs are only one piece of the puzzle for Tom Cable's system, and Collins' looking absolutely horrible out of read option looks would be the kiss of death in a just world. That said, John Schneider was higher on Collins than most and apparently was pretty enthusiastic about Collins' big carries tonight. It would be a big mistake to cut Pope for Collins, but don't be surprised if draft bias gets the better of our GM.
Pope just continues to look like a good NFL player. He's not J-Force 2.0, he's Rawls-lite. And Rawls-lite is something I really want on this roster a year from now when C-Mike signs a lucrative contract with another team this next offseason. Pope has earned the right to be this team's #2 RB in 2017. If they cut him this weekend, Seattle will be pissing away a good player, for nothing.
Oh that's right we have CJ Procise... actually, he looked pretty bad tonight.
PCJS seem to make 1-2 "wtf" cuts every preseason, so it wouldn't shock me at all if Pope got cut.