THE ALLEN FILE
Three-time, first-team All-SEC, 2014-2016
Unanimous All-American, 2016
SEC Defensive Player of the Year, 2016
Lombardi Award, 2016
Ted Hendricks Award, 2016
Chuck Bednarik Award, 2016
Bronko Nagurski Trophy, 2016
CFP National Champion, 2015
Signed a four-year, $72 million extension
By Lenn Robbins
When you play in the middle of the defensive line you don’t expect to be the center of attention. But that’s exactly where Jonathan Allen found himself last season. Allen and fellow defensive lineman Daron Payne got into a physical altercation on the bench late in a what turned out to be a 56-14 embarrassment to rival Dallas.
Payne could be seen jawing in Allen’s ear before pointing a finger in his face. Allen swung.
"I don't think it takes a rocket scientist,” Allen said. “If you look at how that game went, I mean, emotions are high, things are high, things happen.”
It’s a bad optic through any lens but Allen is a team captain. He signed a four-year, $72 million extension in 2021. Payne is the only member of Washington’s starting front four who hasn’t been offered an extension. And the two players were teammates at Alabama.
The dispute was a microcosm of what has been a dysfunction franchise, one with its share of talent but than its share of problems. It’s up to players such as Allen to make it right.
“I’ve got to play better,” Allen said a week earlier after a 27-17 loss to Philadelphia in which the Eagles ran for 238 yards. “If I play better, I give our team a better chance to win. If the defensive line plays better, we give our team a better chance to win. This game is on the D-Line.”
That D-Line is the strength of the Commander’s defense and Allen is the voice of that line. If Washington wants to improve on its 7-10 record, that unit has to be the center of improvement, and attention.