Pass Coverage
Allen’s pass coverage is very much something of a work in progress, as while he flashes enough speed and lateral agility to be a good cover safety, he still needs to be more consistently effective in this regard. His ability to come down and make tackles on underneath routes is a natural progression from his run defense, and in this regard he was quite effective at Penn State:
What is quite troubling, however, is how unaware Allen seems to be at times. Sometimes this comes in the form of soft coverage on the back side of the play:
This is something that can almost certainly be coached out of him, but what is more concerning is how often he seemed unaware of the players around him or, as often as not, the players who weren’t. On the next play, Allen drops off the receiver to prevent a reception behind him, only there is no receiver behind him and so allows a short completion for no reason:
What also happens more often than can be ignored is that he fails to be suitably aware in single high coverage. On the first play, he has underneath help on the inside receiver, but takes too long to make a decision on the play and commit to the outside receiver, thereby allowing the completion:
And on this next play, he gets caught watching underneath routes and fails to account for the deep outside go route, giving up the touchdown:
It is quite hard to determine how fixable this issue is, as it could be due to either a lack of suitable coaching with regards to route recognition, or it might simply be an inability to process routes at a required speed; any teams looking to draft Allen will likely need to dive into this further in interviews to get a fuller idea of what player Allen has a realistic chance of becoming. What Allen did show, albeit in limited snaps, was the ability to match up well against tight ends in man coverage. This is undoubtedly something he will need to continue to work on, but does show promising signs at this raw stage.
Allen is unlikely to ever be an elite cover safety, but if he can at least be good enough, his other skills allow him to offer high-level starting potential at both safety spots. Additionally, as somewhat of an added extra, he did show flashes as a blitzer while in college. This isn’t likely to be a major part of his game at the NFL level, but does offer a defensive coordinator some added options.
Allen isn’t going to an immediate high-level starting option for an NFL team, but he is a good run defender and offers the ability to develop into a good enough cover man in order to be seen as a higher-tier developmental option late on the second day of the draft.
Best Case NFL Comparison: Andrew Sendejo
Worst Case NFL Comparison: Keith McGill
Grade: C+
One Sentence To Tell Your Friends On Draft Night: “A good run defender with enough athleticism to offer developmental value as a cover safety, especially in zone coverage.”
