diff --git a/src/signals/engine.ts b/src/signals/engine.ts
index 6fcbad5c2a..302f59ac9d 100644
--- a/src/signals/engine.ts
+++ b/src/signals/engine.ts
@@ -835,7 +835,7 @@ export function buildCollisionReport(
   }
 
   const pairwiseIssues = boundedCollisionIssues(openIssues, openPullRequests);
-  const pairwisePullRequests = openPullRequests.slice(0, MAX_COLLISION_PAIRWISE_PULL_REQUESTS);
+  const pairwisePullRequests = boundedCollisionPullRequests(openPullRequests);
   const pairwiseRecentMergedPullRequests = recentMergedPullRequests.slice(0, MAX_COLLISION_PAIRWISE_RECENT_MERGES);
   const items = [...pairwiseIssues.map(issueItem), ...pairwisePullRequests.map(prItem), ...pairwiseRecentMergedPullRequests.map(recentMergedItem)];
   const itemTerms = new Map<string, CollisionTerms>();
@@ -5188,6 +5188,22 @@ function boundedCollisionIssues(openIssues: IssueRecord[], openPullRequests: Pul
   /* v8 ignore stop */
 }
 
+function boundedCollisionPullRequests(openPullRequests: PullRequestRecord[]): PullRequestRecord[] {
+  /* v8 ignore start -- Large-queue PR sampling mirrors boundedCollisionIssues; linked and pairwise collision paths are covered above. */
+  if (openPullRequests.length <= MAX_COLLISION_PAIRWISE_PULL_REQUESTS) return openPullRequests;
+  // Rank linked-issue PRs ahead of unlinked ones, then by recency within each group, so the cap keeps
+  // the most-relevant PRs even when linked PRs alone exceed the budget (not just whichever appear
+  // first in caller order).
+  const ranked = [...openPullRequests].sort(
+    (left, right) =>
+      Number(left.linkedIssues.length === 0) - Number(right.linkedIssues.length === 0) ||
+      (right.updatedAt ?? "").localeCompare(left.updatedAt ?? "") ||
+      left.number - right.number,
+  );
+  return ranked.slice(0, MAX_COLLISION_PAIRWISE_PULL_REQUESTS);
+  /* v8 ignore stop */
+}
+
 function itemKey(item: CollisionItem): string {
   return `${item.type}-${item.number}`;
 }
diff --git a/test/unit/signals-v2.test.ts b/test/unit/signals-v2.test.ts
index 0a96a86ada..6f8c3460b0 100644
--- a/test/unit/signals-v2.test.ts
+++ b/test/unit/signals-v2.test.ts
@@ -166,6 +166,77 @@ describe("v2 signal builders", () => {
     expect(health.signals.openPullRequests).toBe(1);
   });
 
+  it("detects pairwise PR title overlap when the queue exceeds 120 and overlapping PRs are newest (regression for bounded PR sampling)", () => {
+    const filler = Array.from({ length: 119 }, (_, index) => ({
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: index + 1,
+      title: `Unrelated maintenance task ${index + 1} for widgets module`,
+      linkedIssues: [] as number[],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(200),
+    }));
+    const overlapA: PullRequestRecord = {
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: 5000,
+      title: "Fix authentication retry backoff handler",
+      linkedIssues: [],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(1),
+    };
+    const overlapB: PullRequestRecord = {
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: 5001,
+      title: "Fix authentication retry backoff logic",
+      linkedIssues: [],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(1),
+    };
+    const manyPullRequests = [...filler, overlapA, overlapB];
+    const report = buildCollisionReport(repo.fullName, issues, manyPullRequests, []);
+    expect(
+      report.clusters.some(
+        (cluster) =>
+          cluster.items.some((item) => item.type === "pull_request" && item.number === 5000) &&
+          cluster.items.some((item) => item.type === "pull_request" && item.number === 5001) &&
+          /meaningful terms/i.test(cluster.reason),
+      ),
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it("still ranks by recency when linked PRs alone exceed the pairwise cap (regression)", () => {
+    // 130 linked-issue filler PRs, all older than the two overlapping linked PRs below. Linked PRs alone
+    // (132) exceed the 120 cap, so a naive "take linked PRs in caller order" pass would still truncate
+    // before reaching the newest, colliding pair.
+    const linkedFiller = Array.from({ length: 130 }, (_, index) => ({
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: index + 1,
+      title: `Unrelated maintenance task ${index + 1} for widgets module`,
+      linkedIssues: [9000 + index],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(200),
+    }));
+    const overlapA: PullRequestRecord = {
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: 6000,
+      title: "Fix authentication retry backoff handler",
+      linkedIssues: [7000],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(1),
+    };
+    const overlapB: PullRequestRecord = {
+      ...pullRequests[0]!,
+      number: 6001,
+      title: "Fix authentication retry backoff logic",
+      linkedIssues: [7001],
+      updatedAt: isoDaysAgo(1),
+    };
+    const manyPullRequests = [...linkedFiller, overlapA, overlapB];
+    const report = buildCollisionReport(repo.fullName, issues, manyPullRequests, []);
+    expect(
+      report.clusters.some(
+        (cluster) =>
+          cluster.items.some((item) => item.type === "pull_request" && item.number === 6000) &&
+          cluster.items.some((item) => item.type === "pull_request" && item.number === 6001) &&
+          /meaningful terms/i.test(cluster.reason),
+      ),
+    ).toBe(true);
+  });
+
   it("uses authoritative queue counts when signal inputs are sampled", () => {
     const sampledIssues = issues.slice(0, 1);
     const sampledPullRequests = pullRequests.slice(0, 1);