New York Giants UDFAs: Get to know Beaux Collins, WR, Notre Dame

Can Collins beat the numbers game and make the Giants’ roster?

The New York Giants signaled pretty clearly that they want to churn the bottom of their wide receiver depth chart.

They’ve reportedly signed six wide receivers as undrafted free agents, which is just under half of their 14 (reported) signings. Many of the receivers they signed also suggest that they want to incorporate more vertical concepts in their passing offense.

Beaux Collins is one of those UDFA receivers, and offers a big catch radius and a good blend of size and speed. He transferred from Clemson to Notre Dame in 2024, but wasn’t often used as a purely vertical threat at either school. His traits, however, suggest that he could have an impact down the field.

Could Collins make good on his potential for splash plays and be a dark horse to make the Giants’ roster?

What does he bring?

Collins’ most notable trait is his blend of size, speed, and explosiveness. He’s a long, lanky receiver at 6-foot-3, 201 pounds, with 31⅝-inch arms, and at the Combine he turned in a 4.54-second 40-yard dash, as well as a 38-inch vertical and 10-foot-10 broad jump.

Kent Lee Platte | RAS.football

The flip side of Collins’ length and long striding speed is that he isn’t terribly agile. Like most receivers with his build, he needs a “gear-down” period when executing routes with sharp breaks. He consistently has to churn his feet when making right angle breaks or working back to the ball. That can make it relatively easy for DBs to stay with him, or make their own breaks on the ball from off coverage.

The combination of length, linear explosiveness, and limited agility makes Collins’ tape a mixed bag. He can struggle when asked to execute sharply breaking routes like square-ins, hooks, curls, or hitches. Likewise, his blocking can suffer if he has to make a last-second adjustment to a defender who took a good angle to the ball.

On the other hand, Collins is a viable vertical threat with solid ball skills as well as YAC potential. His long speed allows him to stress defenses vertically, and he does a good job of picking up the ball in the air, making adjustments, and catching the ball away from his body.

His leaping ability and catch radius also make him an option in the red zone or short-yardage situations He also has the ability to rack up yards after the catch as long as he can get north-south without having to cut.

Can he stick?

Collins has a lot of competition for what might be one or two roster spots. Not only did the Giants bring in six undrafted free agents (one of whom already has a relationship with Jaxson Dart), they have several veterans with similar skill sets on the roster.

The question will, as is pretty much always the case for UDFAs, come down to special teams play.

Collins has the potential to make some splash plays thanks to his athletic traits, but it’ll be the down-to-down effort and play on special teams that will decide those final roster spots. Considering that he’s facing a crowded receiving room and several players who were brought in for their special teams acumen, it seems more likely that Collins will be looking at a spot on the practice squad.