From touted recruit to undrafted

Allen is used to fighting for his job, being next man up

NFL

Tony Tabor’s biggest worry when the kid started high school was his height. He had the arm, the athleticism, the head for the game. He clearly had the work ethic. But if there was one thing that might hold the young quarterback back, Tabor thought, it was his size.

“I didn’t know he’d ever grow,” said Tabor, the former football coach at Desert Mountain High in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Then, all of a sudden, he’s 6-3 or whatever he is.”

As quickly as Kyle Allen grew, so too did his star power. Tabor estimates that scouts and coaches from about 70 colleges trekked in and out of Desert Mountain over the next couple years as Allen amassed more than 8,000 passing yards and 86 touchdowns and sat atop most rankings as the No. 1 prostyle quarterback in the recruiting class of 2014. He had a stack of college offers — close to 20, by his father’s count — and a future that appeared to have no bounds.

“I got phone calls from everybody from Nick Saban to you name it,” Tabor said. “There wasn’t really a place that Kyle couldn’t have gone.”

But the parade ended soon after Allen left Arizona — and it certainly wasn’t his height that got in the way.

Over the next six years, spanning college and his first couple of seasons in the NFL, Allen has endured a football roller coaster that few could’ve predicted, one that has ultimately found the 24-year-old starting this week for Washington.

He’s been benched in two college programs, gone undrafted, felt the elation of being named a starter, rode the success of a 4-0 run, felt the frustration of a season unraveling, then felt the pangs of getting benched (again), experienced the relief of getting traded and learned the value of real mentors.

Allen’s winding path to the NFL isn’t unique, but it’s one those close to him believe has prepared him for his latest opportunity. Washington Coach Ron Rivera named Allen the starting quarterback on Wednesday in place of Dwayne Haskins, last year’s first-round pick whose earlyseason struggles cost him the job.

“One of the things that Kyle will bring to the table is a little more experience within the offense,” Rivera said. “There’s a few things that Dwayne was still learning to do that Kyle knows in terms of communicating with the offensive line. That’ll help.”

After 13 starts in Carolina the past two seasons, Allen is back in a familiar role as the next quarterback up for a team trying to both rebuild and keep its grip on a season with a playoff spot in reach in a down NFC East. How long Allen lasts in the driver’s seat is mostly up to him. Although the progress of Alex Smith could become a deciding factor, for now Allen has the keys.

“If you look at my career so far, I’ve been in the league three years and I’ve started in at least one game every year,” he said. “For me, it’s just always been a mindset of be ready, and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t. But if it does, at least you’re prepared for it.”

Growing up fast

Coming out of Desert Mountain, Allen chose Texas A&M because he had his eyes on the NFL, said his father, Mike Allen. The surest path seemed to be through the SEC.

So he spurned the other offers, which included Ohio State and Oklahoma State, and headed to College Station, Tex.

Eight games into his freshman season, he took over the starting job, went 3-2 and earned MVP honors in the Liberty Bowl to take him into Year 2. But after leading the Aggies to a 5-0 start as a sophomore, he threw three pick-sixes in a loss to Alabama, suffered an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder and was benched two games later for a touted freshman named Kyler Murray.

Allen transferred to Houston, where Tom Herman, who recruited him heavily while an assistant at Ohio State, was coach. But Herman left for Texas while Allen sat out a season because of NCAA transfer rules, and Major Applewhite was promoted in his place.

“There was a lot of growth right away because there were a lot of challenges right away,” Mike Allen said. “He grew up very fast.”

At Houston, a familiar pattern emerged for Allen as his early success came with a short leash. He was benched after one bad game and, by then, had enough of the on-and-off-again college routine. When Allen decided to go pro a year early, inevitably he drew skeptics. Lauded by scouts before his SEC arrival, he headed to the NFL with an average résumé.

“‘I’m going to bet on myself.’ I think that was his exact quote,” Mike Allen said.

And opportunity emerged as more doors closed.

At his pro day at Houston in March 2018, only two NFL coaches showed up, according to his agent, Brian McLaughlin. One was George Godsey, then the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions.

The other was Scott Turner, then the quarterbacks coach on Rivera’s staff in Carolina.

“They’ve really had a huge impact on his life,” Mike Allen said of Rivera and Turner. “They are the first coaches that have really invested in him, believed in him, and saw what he is as a man as much as an athlete. They gave him a shot, and he made the most of it.”

Always ‘about work’

Another mentor in Allen’s journey has been Jordan Palmer, a quarterback guru to many.

Palmer was still playing for the Bears when he first met Allen. It was 2013 and Allen was in the Elite 11, an annual competition among the nation’s top high school quarterbacks. The program is run by former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer, and Palmer is one of his coaches.

Palmer has also become one of the coaches for quarterbacks, working with prospects and professionals alike to hone their craft. Allen has been a client dating back to their 2013 meeting.

To prepare for the draft in 2018, Allen spent the better part of his winter in California, working with Palmer and rooming with fellow prospects Sam Darnold and Josh Allen (no relation). Allen went undrafted, but signed as a college free agent with the Panthers. The following offseason, the three quarterbacks reunited and rented a house together while training with Palmer.

This year, things changed. Shortly after they teamed up in Dana Point, Calif., the world shut down because of the novel coronavirus pandemic and what was expected to be a weeks-long stay turned into near seven-month residency.

Others joined them early as Palmer trained his draft clients — top overall pick Joe Burrow and future Washington practice-squad quarterback Steven Montez were among them — but the core of Allen, Allen and Darnold stayed until they could report to their NFL training camps.

“Because everything got shut down we worked right through it,” Palmer said. “I never had done that before and I’ll never get to do that again. … We basically worked six days a week for six and a half months straight.

“A lot of film study as a group, a lot of golf, a lot of football conversations.”

In Palmer, Allen discovered another trusted adviser in a cutthroat industry. He’s also found one of his biggest advocates.

“He’s basically been in a quarterback competition since Kyler Murray got to Texas A&M,” Palmer said. “He’s had to fight for his reps since then. He’s one of those guys that associates work with success, so he’s never been interested in cutting corners. He’s never been interested in handouts. He’s always been about the work.”