Jonathan Allen’s future in DC

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April 8, 2024

by Steve Thomas

Take a journey with me back to the summer of 2021.  That was the time that Washington’s star defensive tackle, Jonathan Allen, signed a 4 year, $72M contract extension that included $33.1M in guarantees at signing, with the guarantees rising to more than $35.6M over the life of the contract.  Allen rewarded Washington for their faith with his first Pro Bowl season in 2021. Life was good, and fans were hopeful, at least in this one small aspect of Washington football, given the chaos going on at that time in nearly every other area of the franchise.

Fast forward to the present day, in the 2024 offseason, and things have dramatically changed: a new owner, a failed former head coach replaced by a new one, and Allen in circumstances greatly difference than from three years ago.  We’ve been given cause to wonder if Allen’s future actually is what we all though as late as this time last season.  Can he turn it around and get back to his Pro Bowl ways?  Let’s take a shot at analyzing his situation.

First, a bit of background.  Allen was drafted by Washington as the 17th overall pick in the 2017 draft after a distinguished career at the University of Alabama.  With the Crimson Tide, Allen won the Bronko Nagurski Award and the Chuck Bednarik Award, both presented to the best defensive player in the NCAA, and the Lombardi Award given to the best collegiate linebacker or lineman.  He was originally projected to be a top 5 pick, but fell to the Redskins at 17 as a result of concerns about a shoulder injury.  The point is that big things were expected of Allen coming out of college.

In his NFL career, he has played 101 games over 7 seasons, starting all of them, and has a total of 382 combined tackles, including 225 solo, plus 39 sacks and 1 interception.  The following are his relevant stats by year:

2017: 5 games, 10 total tackles, including 3 solo, 1 sack.  Season-ending Lis Franc injury.

2018: 16 games, 61 total tackles, including 35 solo & 11 tackles for loss, 8.0 sacks.

2019: 15 games, 68 total tackles, including 46 solo & 7 tackles for loss, 6.0 sacks.

2020: 16 games, 63 total tackles, including 36 solo & 3 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks.

2021: 17 games, 62 total tackles, including 31 solo & 10 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks.

2022: 16 games, 65 total tackles, including 44 solo & 16 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, 1 interception.

2023: 16 games, 53 total tackles, including 30 solo & 10 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks.

Allen has been one of the most productive defensive lineman in the NFL over the course of his career, even despite his lost 2017 season.  The following chart shows the only defensive lineman in the NFL who had over 360 combined tackles between 2017 and 2023:

Player Combined Solo Ast TFL Sk QB Hits G GS
DeForest Buckner 471 289 182 73 55 143 114 110
Cameron Heyward 429 257 172 79 55.5 125 107 107
Cameron Jordan 383 252 131 90 71 131 113 113
Jonathan Allen 382 225 157 57 39 111 101 101
Leonard Williams 380 196 184 50 33.5 133 110 102
Aaron Donald 379 222 157 119 83 179 106 106
Lawrence Guy 379 202 177 22 10.5 37 110 103
Grady Jarrett 371 203 168 60 30 103 104 104
Calais Campbell 364 234 130 68 49 130 106 105
Davon Godchaux 362 181 181 19 5.5 25 103 92
DeMarcus Lawrence 361 229 132 74 49.5 103 105 103

As you can see, Allen is fourth on this list, despite playing fewer games than most of the others.  I’ll spare you more charts and tell you that Allen ranks 10th in sacks, 6th in solo tackles, 10th in tackles for loss, and 9th in quarterback hits.  That’s an impressive body of work.  This isn’t a situation in which Washington fans are overhyping a hometown hereo.

However, despite his success, Allen had multiple quotes throughout the 2023 season indicating that he was unhappy with the current situation, even going so far as to suggest that he didn’t want to be a part of a rebuild and may be open to a trade.  For his part, general manager Adam Peters made it clear in an interview that he isn’t interested in trading Allen (click here to watch; credit JP Finlay at NBC 4).

The truth is that Allen’s impact was more limited last year than it was in prior seasons.  From a statistical perspective, his 53 total tackles was the lowest of his entire career aside from his injury-shortened rookie year.  His 5.5 sacks were less than every non-injury year except 2020.  But more than that, his weekly impact on the opposing offense’s ability seemed to be much less last season than in previous years.  Allen certainly isn’t 100% responsible for the performance of the team defense, but he is the captain and most important player in the unit.  In my view, given his status and importance, he’s at least partially responsible for the overall decline in unit effectiveness we all saw last season.

Allen needs to produce more from a statistical perspective next year.  He doesn’t necessarily need to be elected to more Pro Bowls – which, if we’re being honest, is a popularity contest which the successful teams with bigger fanbases tend to dominate – but we can’t see a continuing decline in production.  Therefore, part one is for Allen’s numbers to return to at least his career averages.  He is only 29, and defensive tackles can often play into their mid 30s, so age shouldn’t be a big factor in that regard.  To date, he’s also been able to avoid most injuries, except for his rookie year; hopefully that can continue.  Ideally, his number of total tackles should be back up into the mid-60s, with 8 sacks.

The second part of any analysis of Allen is impact.  In my view, Allen’s poor attitude last season effected the entire defense.  Whether or not he wants to be a part of the Dan Quinn / Adam Peters rehab project, the fact of the matter is that Allen is going to remain a Redskin Washington Football Team player Commander with Washington at least through 2024.  If this coming season goes poorly, Washington can cut him in 2025 at a savings of $17M.  Hopefully it won’t come to that, because with the lack of elite-level defensive ends, quality play in the interior will be even more important next year.  Hopefully Allen’s attitude will improve when the team reconvenes for OTAs and training camp and sees a different culture than the one that existed under Ron Rivera.

Washington needs more from Allen next year, whether he wants to be here or not.  He’s one of the highest paid players on the team, the defensive captain, and probably the most critical member of the defensive line, with apologies to Daron Payne.  Hopefully, the change in attitude and culture will do Allen some good.