NY Jets Friday Spotlight: Antonio Allen

Welcome back to the Friday Spotlight.  Here we spotlight one key player for each game of the season, hopefully putting a different player in the spotlight each week.  Today's player in the spotlight is Antonio Allen.

Allen, a 6' 1", 210 pound, 25 year old safety, was drafted by the Jets with the 242nd overall pick in the seventh round of the 2012 draft.  Allen was cut by the Jets in 2012, eventually signed to the practice squad, and worked his way onto the 53 man roster.  He didn't get much playing time in 2012, but by 2013 he earned a starting safety position opposite Dawan Landry.  The late addition of Ed Reed took some playing time away from Allen in 2013, but he nonetheless had a decent year at safety, amassing 39 tackles, 21 assists and a critical interception against the Patriots for a touchdown covering Rob Gronkowski.

Allen was a bit of a tweener coming out of college, where he played linebacker.  Too small to be an NFL linebacker, Allen had to learn the safety position at the professional level, and it has not always been a smooth transition.  Now in his third year, a dearth of talent has caused head coach Rex Ryan to switch Allen's position again, this time to cornerback.  Allen has again had to learn a new position on the fly at the professional level, an extraordinarily difficult thing to do.  Perhaps with the Seahawk's big, physical cornerbacks in mind as a model, the Jets are now asking Allen to line up opposite NFL wide receivers and cover them, a daunting task for cornerbacks who have played all their life at the position, let alone a linebacker converted to safety converted to cornerback who never played the position at any level until about a month ago.

Here are Allen's statistics for the first two plus years of his career.  For a seventh round pick Allen has given the Jets an outstanding return on investment.

Now in his third year with the Jets, his second year as a starting defensive back and his first year as a cornerback, Allen faces a trial by fire in week 2.  His first NFL action at cornerback came at home against a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start.  Derek Carr was given a steady diet of relatively safe, short, easy throws to make and Allen played mostly off coverage, keeping the plays in front of him, allowing short receptions then wrapping the receivers up for short gains.  It was a mostly successful debut for Allen, but this Sunday's challenge is of a vastly different nature and magnitude.  On Sunday Allen faces the future Hall of Fame QB Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.  Rodgers won't be using training wheels, and he won't have a limited playbook.  The Raiders seemed to target Allen in particular to test, and I would expect more of the same with Rodgers and the Packers.  Allen may be lining up against Pro Bowl receiver Jordy Nelson for a good part of the game.  A Rodgers to Nelson connection is worlds apart from a Carr to Streater or Moore connection.  Allen will likely be tested deep, tested on intermediate routes, tested on every route in Green Bay's formidable arsenal.   How Allen holds up under the onslaught will go a long way in determining whether or not the Jets are able to stay in this game.   Nobody can reasonably expect Allen to shut down his assignment in this game, but if he can limit the opposition to just a decent game, rather than a field day, then we can consider Allen to have done his job.

Sunday's matchup provides the ultimate test for Rex Ryan's mad scientist experiment with Allen at cornerback.  If Allen can hold up on the road against one of the top 2 or 3 quarterbacks in the game, then perhaps Allen at cornerback will prove to be a success over the long term.  If however Allen is repeatedly targeted and torched, with the coming slate of games featuring one top quarterback after another, perhaps this game will mark the beginning of the end of the Allen at cornerback gambit.  One thing that will be interesting to watch will be the Jet's willingness to have Allen in press coverage.  Presumably one of the advantages of Allen at cornerback is his size and physicality.  Properly used these can be a weapon in knocking receivers off their routes and disrupting timing.  We saw little of that in the first game; it will be interesting to see if the Packers game causes the Jets to alter their strategy with Allen.

This is the time to gauge if the Allen at cornerback experiment can work.  This is  Allen's chance to show everyone he is a viable option there.  If Allen can hold up against the Packers' attack, maybe the Jets don't have so much to worry about at the cornerback position after all.  If so, a defense that appeared to have one glaring weakness would suddenly shape up to be much more formidable, especially once Dee Milliner is back on the field.  For better or for worse, Allen should prove to be a pivotal player in this game.   This is Allen's time in the spotlight.  Let's hope he shines come Sunday afternoon.