Tonight’s game big for rookie safety
never got hurt in college and coming into a situation where you got to earn your reps and earn your spot and you’re incapable of doing that because of injuries, especially nagging injuries like muscle injuries,” Allen said. “It weighs on you mentally.”
That’s why an interception at the end of Saturday’s preseason victory against the Tennessee Titans was so important for him. Allen celebrated on the field like it was a playoff game and carried the ball around the locker room afterward, holding it like a prized possession. He has already put it in a glass case in his apartment.
The irony of the interception: Allen had only one in four years at Penn State.
“It meant a lot,” Allen said. “I’ve been incapable of practicing and playing in games. I was definitely behind the eight ball and still am, so I definitely got to show what I can do. That’s why I take every rep in practice serious and I got to take every rep in this game serious.”
Then he added, “I got to make it all count.”
The Steelers drafted Allen because they liked his size and sure tackling, making him a good fit for the way they wanted to deploy their safeties as linebackers in sub-packages. Along with Morgan Burnett and No. 1 pick Terrell Edmunds, he would help reshape — literally — the position.
However, while undrafted free agents such as outside linebacker Ola Adeniyi and inside linebacker Matthew Thomas have been able to take advantage of their opportunities, Allen has had limited chances because of hisinjury.
Still, it is reasonable to believe the Steelers might not cut a mid-round draft choice without a true evaluation. They have other options, of course — trying to sneak him through to the practice squad or, if he’s still hurt, putting him on injured reserve.
“I’m pretty sure they did their homework, they know the guy they drafted, what he can or can’t do,” Allen said. “It’s just I got to prove they were right on drafting me.”
But even defensive coordinator Keith Butler said it has been tough to evaluate Allen, making it hard for himto make the team.
“Very difficult,” Butler said. “I think there’s always been people like that in the past where we might keep them for a year or so on the practice squad. It’s hard to say what you’ll do with them, even though we invested a draft choice in them. We got to see what comes along, other people who get cut around the league. We’re trying to better ourselves and we’re going to do what we can to better ourselves.”
Tomlin even went so far as to say “the odds are stacked against” Allen. But the Steelers coach also said he showed Allen a video of the final preseason game against Carolina in 2014 when Ross Ventrone made a big play on special teams, persuading Tomlin to keep himon the 53-man roster.
Tomlin’s point: The same could happen with Allen.
“I showed him a video of Ross Ventrone covering a punt in the Carolina game making a splash play, and I think Ross missed two or three preseason games that year with a hamstring injury,” Tomlin said.
“But we got to a level of comfort with him with what we saw in that game that he made our 53-man roster. So that’s what I mean.”
Allen knows this could be his final chance.
“I got to get out there and do what I got to do,” he said.
It is his Super Bowl, after all.