Catching up With Devon Allen and His Chances of Making the Roster

The Olympic hurdler has been up and down, but that is expected after not playing for five years, so he will get his first chance to show what he can do in a game vs. the Jets

PHILADELPHIA – It’s going to be interesting to see what the Eagles decide to do with Devon Allen.

Do they give him a pass for some inconsistency catching the ball in training camp because he hasn’t played the game in five years, or do they cut him and let him get back to training for the 2026 Olympic Games in Paris?

First cuts are creeping up. NFL teams have to lop five players from their roster by Tuesday at 4 p.m.

That means five Eagles, and maybe six if there is a player released by another team that is attractive enough to sign. That’s five fewer plane tickets, and five fewer hotel reservations, for the trip to Cleveland for joint practices against the Browns on Thursday and Friday.

Allen is likely still a part of the equation at that point and probably holds on until the end of summer before he is released.

Then what?

Does he agree to potentially go to the practice squad or, again, return to the track and hurdling?

Allen spoke recently and sounded fully invested in trying to take football as far as he can.

“I'd like to give it a good go,” he said. “It wasn’t just like a one-and-done thing. It's just kind of like a commitment for me. And, as long as I feel comfortable playing and feel like I can play good football, I'll play. 

"You know, if it gets to a point where I'm like … there's a point everybody's career where they're kind of just like, you know, it's time to go. Until then, I'm in for sure.”

Allen said his commitment to football actually began at Oregon in 2016, the last year he played.

Devon Allen (left) and Britain Covey go through pre-practice stretches

Ed Kracz/SI Fan Nation Eagles Today

He returned from the 2016 Olympics and his mindset was to return to the game, go to the NFL Combine, get drafted, and play. Then, when the Olympics came around again in 2020, spend that summer training.

Then he got hurt in a game against Nebraska and took a step back.

“I was like, ‘What do I do here now?’" he said, "and I decided to focus on track for the next Olympic cycle and then that turned into, you know, five years going to COVID (Olympics pushed back to 2021). So now I'm back.”

As expected, Allen has been a work-in-progress.

It would certainly be helpful for him and his fortunes for sticking around beyond Tuesday's first wave of cuts to find a way to get open and make a catch or two in the preseason opener on Friday night (7:30/NBC10) against the New York Jets at Lincoln Financial Field.

"Devon's doing a good job, you know, he's getting better every day as you'd expect for a guy who hasn't really played,” said WR coach Aaron Moorehead. “In spring he was here in and out with track so it was kind of a tough transition for him the first few days. It's been nice seeing him kind of gain his confidence back a little bit, and just excited to see what he can do kind of moving into preseason games.

“And you know, when you haven't played football in five years, and all of a sudden, you're trying to get into an NFL camp and go against guys who've been playing every day for the last five years. There's going to be challenges, there's going to be ebbs and flows with that. So just trying to get him comfortable with the system and trying to get him comfortable with everything that we're doing on a daily basis."

One thing, Allen said hasn’t been an issue, is the physical part of the game.

The biggest adjustment is learning how to play again, and how to practice again because it is so much different than college.

“It’s been so long since I played, right?” he said. “I just gotta remember the intensity and the tempo that our coaches want in practice and then how to practice and how to get a good rep, even if we're just in helmets or we're just in shells and stuff like that.

"And then also getting all the walkthrough reps I can and learn the offense. It has been interesting, but yeah, just the intensity is a lot different obviously. It's like it's good on good. Every play. It doesn't matter (if it’s against) ones, twos, threes. So it's really fun. It's very competitive, which is great. It's not easy for sure.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.