The Unpacking Future Packers Countdown is a countdown of 100 prospects who the Green Bay Packers could select in the 2025 NFL draft.
The Green Bay Packers’ run defense took a step forward under first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. This past season they gave up four yards per carry and 1,689 yards, which ranked seventh in the league.
If the Packers want to continue to shut things down between the tackles, a player they could target in the 2025 NFL Draft is Alfred Collins. The Texas defensive tackle checks in at No. 29 in the Unpacking Future Packers Countdown.
A native of Texas, Collins recorded two tackles for loss, one sack, one interception and knocked down three passes during his first season on campus. In 2021, Collins recorded five tackles for loss and two sacks. The following season he recorded three tackles for loss and one sack. In 2023, Collins recorded two sacks.
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This past season, Collins recorded a career high of 55 tackles and six tackles for loss. The Texas defensive tackle also recorded one sack and knocked down seven passes.
“Collins was the anchor of one of the nation’s best run defense just one year after losing two defensive tackles to the NFL draft,” Evan Vieth, a writer for Inside Texas, said. “He led a five-deep defensive tackle group in snaps and was a huge body in both the A and B gaps. I’d argue he was the second most impactful on the defense because of his ability to stuff the run on a team that prioritized pass rushers in the front seven and ball-playing defensive backs on the back end.”
Collins is a well-put-together interior defensive lineman. He checked in at the combine at 6-6, 332 pounds, with over 34-inch arms. He’s a tank in the middle of the line and is able to shut down running lanes.
He has a lot of power flowing through those long arms. The former five-star recruit uses his length to help him out-leverage at the point of attack. He’s able to discard blockers with his bully strength and strong hands. With his massive frame, he’s able to bear down against double teams. The Texas defensive tackle has the lateral quickness and nimble feet to slither into gaps and stop run plays before they can get started. He has the range to make plays tackle-to-tackle. According to Pro Football Focus, he recorded 27 run stops this past season. A team will draft him for his ability to two-gap and keep linebackers clean.
“Collins is a giant player in the box but it doesn’t look like it you turn on the tape,” Vieth said. “It’s because a lot of his weight is pure muscle, so he is lean enough to slither through block sheds and has the foot speed to move laterally. He’s a smart kid of course, but his strength and foot speed are pretty absurd. It’s why he was a five-star recruit.”
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Collin has a surprisingly quick first step and charges upfield with power. With his strength, he can walk offensive lineman back into the quarterback’s lap. When he is unable to get home, he has a knack for getting his long arms up to muddy up passing lanes (nine pass deflections over the past two seasons). He recorded 18 pressures this past season and 23 in 2023.
“If there’s one passing down strength, he has it’s getting his arms in the way of passes and batting them down, or obscuring the quarterback’s vision,” Vieth said. “He can bull rush, but so can any 330-pound NFL defensive tackles.”
Fit with the Packers
The Packers need to replace TJ Slaton and with his size and ability to clog up running lanes, Collins could be an ideal target.
Collins has a powerful, NFL-ready frame. His trump card is his ability to two-gap and keep linebackers like Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker clean.
“I wouldn’t draft him if my No. 1 need was a pass rusher, but he is the kind of player that plays into three contracts in the NFL,” Vieth said. “Sturdy, athletic and smart are the three words that come to mind. The NFL is slowly evolving back into the running game as a counter to lighter boxes, so having a two-down defensive tackle who can single-handedly blow up plays is becoming more and more valuable.”
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Drafting a player like Collins may not have fans running to the Packers Pro Shop to buy his jersey this summer, but when the calendar flips to November, he’d quickly become a fan favorite for his ability to do the dirty work in the trenches and shut down running lanes.
Collins is a plug-and-play two-down defender early in his career. Anything he offers as an interior pass rusher would be gravy. With his ability to muddy things up against the run, Collins could have a place in Green Bay’s interior rotation.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.
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Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.
Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.
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“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.
Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert
Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.
Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.
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Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.
“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.
The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.
Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.
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Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.
Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.
The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.
Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.
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Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.
In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Billy Richmond III scored 23 points and No. 20 Arkansas took advantage of Texas A&M’s miscues to beat the Aggies 99-84 on Wednesday night.
Richmond, who shot 8 of 13 from the floor and has scored 20 points or more in the last four games, had 15 points in the first half as the Razorbacks (21-7, 11-4 Southeastern Conference) took a 37-28 lead into halftime.
They carried the advantage in large part because Texas A&M (19-8, 9-6) couldn’t take care of the ball. Thirteen first-half turnovers led to 15 points for Arkansas.
Darius Acuff Jr. scored 22 points for Arkansas, Malique Ewin had 18, Trevon Brazile 14 and Meleek Thomas 13. Acuff, who entered leading the SEC in scoring with 22.2 points per game, had been held to just five points until the final nine minutes as he made his last six of his last seven shots from the floor after a 1-for-12 start.
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Texas A&M forward Rashaun Agee (12) is fouled as he tries to drive past Arkansas defenders D.J. Wagner (21) and Malique Ewin (12) during an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Fayetteville, Ark.
Michael Woods / AP
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Zach Clemence came off the bench to score a career-high 29 points for Texas A&M. Rashaun Agee added 17.
After the teams traded baskets to start the game, Texas A&M went on an 11-0 run as Arkansas went more than 4:30 without a field goal, missing seven straight. The Razorbacks followed with a run of their own, scoring 16 straight points over the next 3:28 to take the lead for good.
Texas A&M pulled within five points with 9:21 left on Agee’s layup. But Arkansas countered with a 9-2 run to stretch its lead back to double-digits.
For the game, the Aggies committed 16 turnovers and were outscored in transition 30-13.
Up next
Arkansas plays at No. 7 Florida on Saturday. The Razorbacks have won at Florida just twice in 18 games since joining the SEC ahead of the 1991-92 season.
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Texas A&M hosts Texas on Saturday.
Fort Worth’s Ranchbot helps agriculture tap water as Texas grapples with scarcity fears
NCAA women’s basketball bracketology: Where are local teams projected in March Madness?
Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Find more Texas A&M coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
