Heading into the 2024 NFL season, the Jets own a unique distinction: The team boasts the oldest player in the league — QB Aaron Rodgers, 40 — and the youngest — rookie RB Braelon Allen, 20.
Allen, a fourth-round selection (No. 134 overall) in April’s NFL Draft, is a bruising runner and promising pass catcher out of Wisconsin. He had his first training camp encounter with the team’s beat reporters over the weekend and quickly, and humorously, addressed the age “issue.”
“He [Rodgers] was definitely a little tripped out about it at first when I first met him,” Allen said. “But from what I had heard, he had seen some Wisconsin games in my freshman year, so he knew that I was playing at 17 or whatever. So that was really the first thing that he had said to me.
“But he was like, ‘First guy I’ve ever played with that could literally be my kid.’ So that, that was pretty funny.”
Allen, who played with center Joe Tippmann in Madison, has the size (6-1, 235), speed and versatility to provide the Green & White with a reliable backup to budding star Breece Hall. Along with Hall and Allen, another rookie — Isaiah Davis — is expected to provide punch in the backfield that also includes Israel Abanikanda.
“The expectation for me is to be that bruiser and run with more power and low pads and just impose my will on people,” Allen said. “As I’ve grown over the years, that’s become more, more of the emphasis.”
Allen displayed his range of talent during the 2021 and ’22 seasons, rushing for 1,268 yards as a freshman at 6.8 yards/carry and 12 rushing TDs, then 1,242 yards, at 5.4 per. In 2021, he set a Wisconsin record with the most consecutive games with at least 100 rushing yards for a freshman — 7. In 2022, he set a school mark with a 96-yard dash against Illinois State and finished his collegiate career No. 9 in Badgers’ history with 3,494 career rushing yards.
During OTAs and now while in camp, his skill in the pass game (on Saturday he made a nice over-the-shoulder catch of a Rodgers pass) has been on display. In his third and final season in Madison, Allen had the most receptions (28 or 132 yards) under the Badgers’ first-year coach Luke Fickell. Natural with the ball in his hands, Allen is working on his blocking as he continues his pro transition.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say, I’m the best in the world at it, but it’s something that I’ve grown a lot in, especially over the past year,” Allen, who will wear No. 0 in green and white, said. “But it’s something that I take seriously and take a lot of pride in and something that I do want to be the best at. So, like I said, it’s a work in progress and just trying to develop that skill every day.”
He has impressed his coaches, Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, with his physicality and his talent — not to mention his size.
“He’s a big boy and you guys can see that up close,” Saleh said this past Saturday. “He’s heavy, very smart, fluid, good out of the backfield, really good in pass protection already for a rookie. Isaiah Davis, very similar.
“I feel like they’re ahead of the game with regards to the protection system. Braelon is really smooth out of the backfield with his hand, so he’s got a chance, he’s just got to keep working.”
Hackett said he loves the size of his running backs, with Hall (5-11, 220), Allen and Davis (6-0, 218) contrasting with the nippy Abanikanda (5-10, 216).
“We’ve probably one of the bigger running back rooms in the NFL I think, and it’s going to be fun to watch them carry the ball,” Hackett said. “I think both those rookies have done a really fine job.”
