Jonathan Allen, the true Best Player in the 2017 NFL Draft

Take time to read this article, then go watch Allen's game film...THEN debate me on who the best player in this draft is. Watch the film and tell me you don't see exactly what this article is describing.


From the Bleacher Report, Greg Couch-National Columnist

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...age-fuel-jonathan-allen-the-unstoppable-force

Broken Childhood and Controlled Rage Fuel Jonathan Allen, the Unstoppable Force

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ? In high school, they used to call Jonathan Allen "the Hulk." It wasn't the most original nickname for a big, hulking, muscular football player who was mild-mannered off the field. But this name carried a dangerous and unknown reality with it.

Allen really did go into a rage. He really did turn green. Well, close anyway. His own high school teammates were afraid to talk to him on game days. Allen, now Alabama's All-American defensive lineman and maybe the best college football player in the country, coolly says he likes to get worked up for games and play angry because that's what he saw Ray Lewis do on TV. So it's a planned emotion.

Oh, but this rage was real. And opponents didn't think he could control it, but instead that it was controlling him. Some of his own teammates wondered.

"There was this one game with a predominantly white school," said Cameron Reynolds, Allen's close friend and high school teammate. "They were calling him the N-word, throwing popcorn at him. They were trying to get into his head and see if they could get him to do something to get thrown out of the game.

"They were treating him like an animal."

They were trying to make him turn green.

You can't automatically see where Allen's rage comes from. Off the field, he seems so removed from it, calm and well-spoken. In high school, he was living in a wealthy area in Virginia. He is from a military family. He is smart, gets good grades, is well-adjusted.

"Yeah, but it wasn't always like that," Allen said. "That was later. Before that, my brother and I went into foster homes, got split up a little bit. We moved from hotel to hotel because of money. ? My mom and dad got divorced, and my mom lost custody for some reason. I don't know why, to be honest with you.

"We lived in a home that was like 30 of us in a big foster building. I eventually got adopted by the same mom my brother did: Miss Johnson. We lived with her for about six months and then lived with my dad. But I [almost] always had my big brother with me, so nothing really bothered me."

Allen finishes his college career Monday against Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship, in which Alabama is trying for its second straight title. And while Allen is one of the nation's most prominent, well-known players, he opened up to Bleacher Report in a personal way that even his own teammates and Alabama officials hadn't heard before.

"If people ask, I'll tell them," he said. "But I don't go out of my way to tell people. It definitely made me who I am. I don't really take things for granted. I don't know ... it's hard to explain. It's one of those things where you just had to have toughness. It made me tough."

At times, Allen seems to soft-pedal his early childhood, and that's likely due to his tough-guy nature. He also is a little unclear on some of the details. But one thing's for sure: While he was always close to his mother, he doesn't know where she is now.

He hasn't seen or spoken with her since he was in the third grade. And when he starts making NFL money, he plans to hire a private investigator to find her.

"I've tried to reach out to her, but I haven't been successful," he said. "I just want to know what happened to her. She had always been great to me."

Allen's father, Richard II, and brother, Richard III, paint an even harsher picture of Allen's childhood than he does. Richard II said, "Jonathan had a rough childhood initially." Added Allen's brother, "Our father was really hard on me, and I was hard on Jonathan when we were growing up."

"Too hard."

Allen's brother and father, both Army men, said that might be where Jonathan's rage started. Or maybe it came from someone who was taught a man never shows weakness. It likely was a mix of both.

Whatever the reason, Allen did control his rage that day against the aforementioned high school?a black kid twice the size of all the white kids taunting him and screaming racist names.

"He'd make a tackle on their side of the field," Richard II said, "and they'd yell at him, 'Get back on your own side of the field, N-word. F--k you. F--k you.'"

Allen channeled the Hulk on the field that night, taking it out on his opponents by making bone-crunching tackles throughout the game. At one point, he put his helmet into the chin strap of a player, "and it went 'Bang' and he knocked that kid like a foot in the air," Reynolds said. "I was walking right next to Jon, and he says to me, 'Don't worry about it. I've got 20, 30 minutes to show what I'm about. I'm going to do my work between the whistles.'"

Allen's dad loves that story. The Hulk was at his best because of the rage.

"There's a funny story you hear from soldiers during battles of World War II," Allen's dad, Richard II, said. "When the soldiers were being fired at, they never felt so alive in their lives. They could see better, smell better, run better. They were better soldiers. They had tapped into their adrenaline."

That's Richard II's vision for Jonathan?his vision for how to make him a better soldier on the football field.

"Ray Lewis was angry playing football," Richard II said. "Controlled rage. So long as it's controlled, that's a good thing."

So long as it's controlled, yes. But that's walking a fine line, isn't it?

Richard II said when he finally got custody of Jonathan, at age 9, and his brother, 16, back from their mother through all the court battles, "Jonathan had anger issues, unfortunately for him."

"After we got divorced [in 1997, when Jonathan was 2], his mother used the kids as a weapon against me. She wouldn't let them speak to me on the phone, wouldn't let me see them."

Richard II said the Army sent him to South Korea the next year, and he couldn't take the family. After a year there, he was sent to Washington state. And somewhere in there, he said, she ran off with the kids. She had moved them to South Carolina.

But for six months, Richard II said, he didn't know where the family was. Keep in mind: This is the story all from his perspective. Richard II said Allen's mom was "an exceptionally brilliant person," but she was also highly "paranoid," thinking people?including mayors and governors?were trying to kill her. Richard II said she felt it was safer not to enroll her kids in school.

Eventually, Richard II said, the state of South Carolina took the kids from their mother. But Richard II said he had difficulty, all the way from Washington state, getting through the court system in South Carolina to show he was a fit father.

So Jonathan and Richard III went into foster care.

"Jonathan was a mama's boy, and it was harder on him than it was on me," said Richard III, who also said somewhere in there they spent a year living with their grandma. "In the foster home [group home] there was no father figure there, just 21-, 22-year-old kids working there. I wasn't trying to be a father figure, just a good big brother.

"My father taught me to be tough, not show emotion or weakness. We're Allens. We're not weak. I take a lot of pride in that. You show love for other people, but when it's time to be aggressive, be strong. I see that in Jonathan on the field. He's like two different people.

"But when we were in foster homes, I'd see him cry, and I'd get on him: 'Why are you crying? You still have food in your stomach, clothes on your back, a roof over your head.'"

He was roughly five years old, crying because his dad was gone and his mom had suddenly disappeared. And Jonathan Allen was told this:

"Be a man."

Nobody saw Allen coming. The best defensive player in the country? His dad and stepmom moved the family near Ashburn, Virginia, and Jonathan transferred to Stone Bridge High School late in his freshman year. He tried out for the football team his sophomore year, but coaches didn't know a thing about him.

That's because he didn't play football as a freshman.

"I wanted to be a basketball player," he said.

"He missed tryouts," Richard II said. "Of course I was a little upset. I went and talked to the coach to see what we could do, and he just said, 'Better luck next time.'

"I told Jonathan, 'I can't want this more than you. You have to do your due diligence.'"

Allen was a standout in Pee Wee football. But he also was brought up to believe you are responsible for yourself. You don't do the right thing and you suffer the consequences. You work hard and earn your own money and deal with it responsibly. You learn the value of hard work. You get good grades.

But Richard II and Richard III both said they saw something special in Jonathan when he played football as a little kid. It was an extra work ethic, extra desire. Rage?

Nobody knew any of that at Stone Bridge when Allen arrived. But the Stone Bridge coach, Mickey Thompson, was an offense-first guy, and when he saw this athletic 6'3", 180-pounder walk up, he knew he had a receiver-in-waiting.

Unfortunately for Allen back then, the body that will soon make him an NFL millionaire failed him.

"Jon dropped everything," Derek Barlow, Stone Bridge's defensive assistant at the time, said. He remembers the start of tryouts well: "They started throwing to Jonathan, this big athletic guy, and he dropped every single pass."

Thompson considered cutting Allen, but Barlow and the defensive coordinator at the time, Mike Skinner, argued Allen was big and fast, so there had to be something he could do.

"You want him; you've got him," the head coach told them. They put Allen on the defensive line and couldn't believe how fast he picked everything up. Barlow said coaches decided not to get too excited until after seeing Allen in a game.

In his first-ever game with Stone Bridge, Allen had four sacks. "He was just all over the place," Barlow said.

Think about that. The best defensive player in college football nearly got cut from his high school team and was moved to defense seven years ago only as a last resort.

"I had never played defensive line in my life," Allen said. "Didn't want to. I didn't like it. I wanted to be a running back.

"I still can't catch. I don't have the biggest hands."

Alas, a Hulk was born.

A 45-minute conversation with Reynolds, now a linebacker at Shepherd University in West Virginia, about his friend Allen goes roughly like this:

First 10 seconds: Tell me about Allen.

Next 44 minutes, 50 seconds: He does, cramming two hours' worth of words and thoughts into that time and possibly all in one breath. To him, no sentence ends with a period, but instead with a "because" or an "and another thing." He included the meaning of all of Allen's high school greatness.

And you believe him. In one game during Allen's junior year, the team trailed 24-0 to rival Broad Run and Allen, exhausted, created a goal-line stand all by himself just before halftime. That effort, Reynolds said, inspired the team to come back to a 31-30 victory. It also inspired Allen. Reynolds said that was the day Allen started thinking about whether he could have a future in football. From there, Reynolds said, Allen changed his diet and took the game more seriously.

"You could see the heart in him in that game," Reynolds said. "The determination that we're just not losing. That put it on the rest of us to follow him. From that game on, he was just dominating, dominating, dominating."

And this: "The first defensive drive I ever played with him, he dislocated his shoulder. I see him getting up after the second play, and his arm's just hanging down. The shoulder's just hanging out of the socket. But he's not coming out of the game."

Allen quickly became a big shot at the school, but Barlow, who was promoted to be Stone Bridge's defensive coordinator for Allen's last two years in high school, said he never acted like it. He tells of the time when Allen was a sophomore, still new to the school, and one particularly strict Advanced Placement world history teacher came down the hall and said one word to Barlow: Allen.

This is a high school coach's nightmare, when a teacher barks out a player's name.

"But he says, 'He sits in the front of the class, says 'yes sir, no sir.' I said, 'Yeah, he's military.' And he says, 'No, when I allow him to get into a group, he goes with the awkward kids, the shy kids. Not the popular kids. He's a special one.'"

Still, the legend of Jonathan Allen hadn't spread. During his sophomore year, Thompson called the coaches at Virginia Tech, where the school had sent several players, and told them he had a gem.

No thanks, the Virginia Tech coaches said. Too small.

This still bugs Allen.

Allen says he continued to bulk up, playing at 245 pounds as a junior. That year, Barlow remembered Allen getting three sacks in quick order in a game, all with different moves.

"The first one, he takes his right forearm and swings, hits the kid's left shoulder," Barlow recalled. "He swings through almost like a tennis swing. And the kid flies in the air. Two plays later, he does a helicopter move. Off the right edge, now you take your left arm and rip to the sky, then spin underneath. The kid is trying to combat John's left arm, and he totally spins and comes inside. The last sack, he just bull-rushes the guy.

"The head coach comes in the next day and says, 'Those are some pass-rush moves you taught him.' I would never teach anyone that. Kids can't do that."

They called Allen in and asked where he learned those moves. Allen said he had watched them on TV in NFL games and wanted to give them a try.

Allen remembers that game well. He also remembers that his coaches went back to Virginia Tech to pitch him again.

"They still didn't want me," Allen said. "Whatever."

Things changed, of course. But how exactly does someone go from being lowly recruited to Alabama to the best defensive player in the country?

"Jon wasn't highly recruited because he didn't go to a lot of showcases or combines, which are usually how kids are marketed," Barlow explained. "He actually devised a list himself and asked our head coach, Mickey Thompson, to send his highlights, transcripts and board scores to a bunch of Power Five schools.

[Alabama head coach Nick] Saban and [then-Florida head coach Will] Muschamp liked the film and, being free-thinkers, ignored the fact he wasn't listed on the recruitment 'gurus' websites and invited him to their one-day camp, where he earned a scholarship on his visit. Once that happened, then every [Division 1] program offered him."

From there, Saban said on his radio show earlier this season, Allen has steadily improved.

"The guy has developed each and every year into being a better and better and better player," Saban said. "I think sometimes a lot of players lose sight of how football is a developmental game, how they improve, how they can improve their value by continuing to grow and develop as players in college. Jonathan Allen is a great example of that."

In fact, Allen is about to show the value of patience. He had planned to jump to the NFL after last season, but Saban told him he should expect to be a second- or third-round pick. Allen's feelings were hurt, as he said he thought he was ready to be a first-round pick.

But he made a business-type decision to come back to Alabama. Now, the 6'3", 294-pounder is widely considered a consensus top-five pick in this year's NFL draft. Analysts compare him to Ndamukong Suh, a four-time Pro Bowler, for his completeness. That includes every ability from bull-rushing for a sack to, as Ole Miss found out, the athleticism and speed to return an interception 75 yards for a touchdown.

Phil Savage, a former NFL scout who now is the executive director of the Senior Bowl and calls Alabama games on the radio, said he wonders if Allen might fall slightly in the draft because teams might not think of him as big enough to play on the inside of the line or have enough of a burst to rush from the outside.

He says Allen can play any spot on the defensive line and thinks if Allen does drop, people will look back and wonder why. After a few years, they'll realize Allen was the best player in the draft.

The polished, studied Allen you see today doesn't show many outward signs of the Hulk-on-the-edge Allen who was a product of his dysfunctional past. But that kid is still inside, and he'll be there when Allen moves on to the NFL.

"I wouldn't say it's changed at all..." Allen said when asked about his rage. "I probably toned it down a little bit from high school and learned to play a little smarter."

Richard III says you can still see the two Allens in his brother working together: the rage-fueled one and the caring, thoughtful, detail-minded one.

Take the "Superman Sack" from this season's Texas A&M game, for example. Anyone who saw it remembers it. The other day, a reporter asked Allen's teammate, Minkah Fitzpatrick, if he could pick one play from the season to put on a Vine, which one would it be?

"When Jon jumped over the dude at Texas A&M and smashed the quarterback," he said, without giving it any thought. "That would be it right there."

Spoiler

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIn3iMbyj9Y[/video]

But that highlight came out of planning, not rage.

"On the third down before, I came free on a stunt and got cut by the running back," he said. "So I had in my mind that on the next play, he was probably going to do the same thing. I just tried to think of some way to get past it. So on the next third down, the opportunity presented itself, and I just went over the top."

Barlow said when Allen is able to come home in the offseason, he and childhood friend Reynolds drop by to see Barlow at his new school, Woodgrove, They work out for a couple of hours and then stay for two more to give advice to the high school kids working out nearby.

"I always talk to these kids about the stuff I would have wanted to hear, lessons I've learned from Coach Saban and from seeing other people's mistakes," Allen said.

The mild-mannered Allen has also already gotten his degree in financial planning and consumer affairs. And he has carefully mapped out where all the dollars will go when he gets to the NFL, though he didn't share that game plan.

"That's one of the reasons I went into financial planning," he said. "I don't want to be like a lot of athletes who come out of the NFL broke. That's pitiful, to be honest."

Despite his background, Allen is now the picture of someone who is well-adjusted. He seems to have found the perfect blend of his two selves?the controlled rage of a Hulk with a heart.

 

Sorry, I thought this was too powerful to simply be an excerpt in one of the other threads...Jonathan Allen could help transform this defense and team. The more I watch his tape, the more I think we should NOT trade down, but simply stay at #1 overall and make sure we don't lose this future NFL star.

 

Tough choice.

Take the once-in-a-decade freak athlete who has been unstoppable since stepping onto a football field. A guy who measures better than previous #1 overall picks like Jadeveon Clowney and Courtney Brown? Who checks every single box when evaluating a defensive end and is easily compared to guys like Javon Kearse and Julius Peppers?

Or take a guy Alabama cranks out every 2-3 seasons.

Hmm...

 

Yep, that sounds like an intelligent retort..Well thought out.

 

Thank you.

 

In all seriousness...

I'm not going to talk you into Myles Garrett and you're not going to convince me that Jonathan Allen is better. No amount of film - which your assessment disagrees with most every other analyst and professional out there, including the Browns (as reported by Adam Schefter) - or debate is going to change that.

All that said, Allen is my clear-cut #2, so I wouldn't curse to the sky if they went with Allen at the top. I think it's more of a scheme-fit pick if that happens, but so be it.

Ultimately, I feel the decision between the two will likely come down to team interviews and how the players respond to questions and the coaches. Garrett may be the most physically-gifted defensive player in the past two decades, but if he flunks out face-to-face (which we'll never know), there's a bigger red flag than anything else tape or stats or measurablables will show.

 

You're welcome.


So your evaluation of Allen is based on the program's past player performance?

And your evaluation of Garrett is based on similar measurables to two other players...One of which hasn't amounted to much because he can't stay on the field. Why not mention the other "athletic freaks" that dominated the college ranks, got drafted top ten and realized you can't get by on athletics alone?

Are we only interested in a pass rush specialist? I want to stop the run and Allen will help accomplish that along with helping in the pass rush.

 

Valid point, without a doubt and it goes both ways.


As far as the Browns draft board, schefter or not, I don't think they have touched the surface on where any player is ranked yet.

 

Clowney was just named to the Pro Bowl, right?

There's a reason that QBs, LTs, and DEs are the only top overall picks of the past two decades. You need to pass the ball, protect the passer, and rush the passer.

Cleveland was second-to-last in sacks in 2016 and second-to-last in rush defense. Both are major needs.

On the rare instance they ran at Myles Garrett, he actually posted a very high run defense grade, according to PFF.com and watching the tape, he pursues the ball carrier very well.

Maybe. I just don't know that leaking an "astronomical grade" on a DE that everyone considers to be the top pick is any kind of smoke screen or ploy of the offseason. Saying that about a guy like Josh Allen (QB, Wyoming - not a typo) on the other hand, would be.

 

I get that also, but it is still hard to believe that he has a contact in every scouting department for 32 teams, releases information and still gets good information over and over and over again. This report sounds like just what you said an obvious statement to where the General Media is pointing to the prospects right now. Gives him something to "report".

 

Actually, I find it very easy to believe he's got contacts in every scouting department. He's very well-connected and that's exactly how you get to be one of the most popular analysts.

 

And, a scout giving out accurate information 1minute-3 months before the draft will be fired, unless they are doing it to ring up trade business under orders.


Look there will be multiple reports between now and April..some will be accurate and others will obviously not be, but we won't know which are which until the card is announced draft night...you and I both know this to be true.

By the way, the same report back on Dec. 12th (I am assuming this is what you are talking a about) mentioned Jonathan Allen as another possible choice at #1 overall if it's the Browns...also mentioned Mitch Trubisky AND Deshone Kizer as possible QB choices...It's just that the headlines were Browns have astronomical grade on Garrett.



Pretty simple, you can continue your crusade to get Garrett and I will continue to feel the best option is Allen.

For my argument, not only do I think Allen is a more dominant player overall, he also impacts this defense more succinctly. We NEED a 3/4 DE that can help Shelton push that line backwards and has the speed and quickness to envelope two defenders while pass rushing...Allen has that, which will open more opportunities for our current pass rushers. Ogbah is growing by the day and I think he could become a prominent pass rusher with more help on the inside...He along with Jamie Collins would become more efficient players with Allen in the game.

I don't think Garrett will be able to effect the game without help, that we don't currently have on the roster... Carl Nassib may be able to help, if he could stay healthy...same with Des Bryant...but neither have been healthy this season... anyone can get injured, I know you can't "count" on that as a measuring stick, but I personally think Allen would bring a nastiness to this defense on the other side of Nassib or Bryant that this team hasn't seen in decades.

Although... to jump back over to your side for a quick second... Ogbah could stay at DE if Garrett was drafted. He has been more effective there than at OLB.



How about this scenario...

Browns trade down to #3 overall with the Bears...Get #3, #36 and 2018 second round draft pick, according to the chart, this will be worth about 2950 in points compared to the #1 overall of 3000 points.

#1 overall Bears select QB of choice
#2 overall 49ers select QB of choice
#3 overall the Browns select Myles Garrett 3/4 OLB
#4 overall TRADE Jaguars acquire #12, #36 and 4th round #1 pick(not sure what exact pick it will be due to comp picks in the 3rd round. This will be around 1830 points compared to #4 overall of 1800 points. Jags lose out on Garrett, but have mulitple other edge rushers in play as well as RBs and WRs, gain an early 2nd round pick and a 4th round throw in.
Browns select Jonathan Allen 3/4 DE

come back at the top of the 2nd
#33 Gareon Conley CB
#52 Justin Evans S
3rd round
#65 Tyler Orlosky C

All you lose is the 4th round pick and still have the 2018 2nd rounder to boot from trading down...

I can dream, can't I??

 

I will say again give me Walker over both guys...motor, leadership and can stop the run and rush the passer...his #s stack up or eclipse both guys...like the old saying goes the eye in the sky don't lie and his tape is scary good

 

Well, everyone in the country right now(and no, I don't give much credence to the talking heads, especially this time of year) has him going in the 2nd round...Forego my CB pick here and take all 3...that should take care of the front 7, especially if Jamie Collins is signed to a new contract. How perfect would that be?

If they take my advice and sign RG Kevin Zeitler in free agency, take C Orlosky in the 3rd, you help both your defense and offense...

Can you imagine the training camp battles if all 3 were drafted?

 

I trust my evaluation on him and watching him grow as a player....I found it amusing seeing Chris Wormley projected over him on certain sites lol...I dont even remember that guys name being called during the game while Walker was causing havoc every possession vs Mich

 

lol, I just realized I didn't address this...

He made it to the Pro Bowl with 52 tackles and 6 sacks...

Ogbah had 53 tackles with 6 sacks...does that mean he has "made it"...maybe we don't need Garrett at all, if that is the measuring stick...

 

There is obviously much more to it than pure stats. Coaches and players vote too, so he must be doing something right to impress his peers and bosses.

 

Yeah, he was a #1 overall pick that FINALLY stayed on the field for 16 games...


Naw, just giving you a hard time...He is in the pro bowl because of his 16 TFL, he has really improved his run defense..it seems to the detriment of gaining insight into the pass rush in the NFL, but run defense imo is just as important. Hope your guy Garrett will be just as potent in the run game, but despite his TFL #s, if he wasn't in on a highlight play, he simply stopped playing. That's the only thing about his game I don't like.

 

They ran away from him 95.6 percent of the time!

On the rare instances they did run his way, he faced double teams every time and still managed 47.0 TFL's in 34 games.

Everyone in the world: "Hey, Myles Garrett is the best player in this draft."

IrishDawg42 & showstopper: "Nope."

 

Case in point:



His quickness off the line is so incredible the left tackles try to dive block him and catches air. The tight end is hopelessly over-powered and the running back is tackled for a loss.

I remember you saying a while back that he never faced double teams.

Spoiler

http://live4sportnetwork.com/forumlist/viewtopic.php?pid=443000#p443000

Maybe that's why you thought that? He's so fast that two players rarely, if ever, get to engage him?