For Texas Longhorns fans who followed Alfred Collins from Cedar Creek High School through five seasons in burnt orange, the news out of Melbourne lands with a sting.
The San Francisco 49ers have placed the former Texas defensive tackle on injured reserve after he tore his patellar tendon in practice, ending his 2026 season before the opener against the Los Angeles Rams, via the NFL transaction log.
Collins, 24, is a Bastrop native who became one of the more durable pieces of Steve Sarkisian’s front. He played 64 games at Texas from 2020 to 2024, finishing as a second-team All-American and first-team All-SEC tackle in 2024.
The 49ers took him 43rd overall in 2025, and last fall he flashed the kind of interior disruption Texas fans expected: 17 tackles, a sack, two forced fumbles and two recoveries in 16 games. The signature moment came against the Rams, when he punched the ball off Kyren Williams at the goal line in a game San Francisco won in overtime.
That was supposed to be the launching pad. After offseason shoulder surgery kept him out of OTAs and limited him early in camp, Collins was listed as a starter next to Osa Odighizuwa heading into Week 1. Instead, Kyle Shanahan said the tendon tore in the period just before 11-on-11 work. Surgery is next. The season is gone.
From a Texas vantage point, this is another reminder of how quickly an NFL second act can stall. Collins was never a highlight-reel sack artist in Austin so much as a space-eater who stayed on the field and won with size, length and consistency.
That same profile made him a logical piece for a 49ers line that needed run-stuffing depth. Losing him on the other side of the world, days before kickoff, is the kind of injury that feels random and cruel—especially after he had already worked back from the shoulder.
Patellar tendon tears are long recoveries, often 9 to 12 months, and they are unforgiving for 330-pound interior linemen.
Former 49ers lineman Drake Jackson never fully bounced back from the same injury. Collins is younger, which helps, but the timeline now points toward 2027, not a midseason return.
For Texas fans, the story is still unfinished. Collins was part of the program’s climb into the SEC and a weekly presence on a defense that asked big bodies to hold the point.
The hope in Austin will be the same as in Santa Clara: that the kid from Bastrop gets the surgery, puts in the rehab, and gets another run at the role he was just about to claim.
The Horns produced the player. The NFL just put him on hold.
