CJ Allen has dealt with several minor injuries in his first summer of professional football. He appears to be healthy now, although no outsider can really be sure of that. At least he moved well when he was on the field in the Indianapolis Colts' preseason game against Atlanta on Saturday.
Those injuries cost Allen valuable practice time and reps. That is almost certainly a bigger hindrance to him as the season approaches than the physical issues. Again, we can’t know how the internal part of his game is being affected by missed practices.
The point is, what we have seen from the Colts’ top draft pick so far in the preseason may merely be a small delay in his climb toward a great career. The problem is that it may not be what we are witnessing at all. We may be seeing a player who was overhyped after the draft. We may be seeing a player who was meant to be a savior, and who in reality may turn out to be another average guy.
The book on the Indianapolis Colts' prize rookie remains wide open
There’s no question that CJ Allen can play linebacker in the NFL, and it would be ludicrous to suggest he’s a bust when his career is in its infancy. But if you watched him against the Falcons, you did not see a player who you can build a defense around. That had been the standard opinion after Chris Ballard chose him in the second round. The Colts, the common wisdom said, got a genuine steal.
Lou Anarumo cycled four linebackers throughout most of the Falcons’ game. Austin Ajiake, Jaylon Carlies, and fellow rookie Bryce Boettcher joined Allen in the rotation. I saw promising plays from all of them but Allen. I also saw more snaps from the others. Is that due to Allen's health, or are the other linebackers simply outplaying him and earning more time?
It wasn’t so much that he was bad. It would be nice if an undrafted practice squad tight end like Joshua Simon didn’t embarrass him in pass coverage, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. And it would be nice if he had been able to fight off a lineman and stop Tyler Goodson's long touchdown run. Those are things that he will probably learn from and improve.
The bigger problem is that most of the time he was on the field, CJ Allen was invisible. Rookies making mistakes in preseason is expected. But they should also be flashing some playmaking ability. In his very limited action, CJ Allen has yet to show that.
The other linebackers all made plays. If you were watching the telecast on NFL Network, you may have seen highlights from other games. Reuben Bain and R Mason Thomas made highlight-reel plays in the Chiefs-Bucs game. Have you seen any highlight-reel plays from Allen yet?
Of course, it’s insanely early. He may come out next week and blow things up. But what if he doesn’t? Players like Allen enter the league every season. If they are chosen in the first fifty picks, there are very high expectations.
Last year, a couple of linebackers drafted a bit earlier than Allen – the Eagles’ Jihaad Campbell and the Browns’ Carson Schwesinger – had excellent seasons. But a couple drafted just after where Ballard took Allen – Cincinnati’s Demetrius Knight and Baltimore’s Mike Green – just turned out to be average players.
Knight and Green are not bad players. Not at all. They may grow into very good players in time. But the odds say that both will remain OK players.
CJ Allen was not drafted to be an OK player. He was drafted to be the centerpiece of a radically redesigned defense. The Colts did not ship out Zaire Franklin and wave goodbye to Germaine Pratt so that CJ Allen could just be an average player.
The fact is, Allen is a good athlete, but there is nothing in his athletic profile that screams greatness. His coaches have lauded his work ethic and his intelligence. All he needs may be a little more time – a few more reps – a little more confidence, and he will, in fact, turn into the player all Colts’ fans envisioned.
It’s also possible that what we are seeing early on is what we will see a year or two from now, albeit with some modest improvements over time. At the very least, it now appears that at the beginning of his NFL journey, CJ Allen is not going to be the immediate difference-maker Colts fans hoped for. And on a defense that has a lot more questions than answers, that is a problem.
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