Steelers' Marcus Allen Impressing ILBs Coach Jerry Olsavsky

PITTSBURGH -- Marcus Allen is turning a new page on his football career as he tries to find his place within the Steelers' defense.

Over the last week, Allen has worked at inside linebacker. A slow transition has turned into what appears to be a complete position change.

In a short period of time, he's seen his ups and downs but has impressed inside linebacker's coach Jerry Olsavsky.

"Marcus [Allen] has a very professional attitude. He's going to go and run into people. You can't have enough of those on a football team. I'm so happy to have him in my room. It's not even funny."

Olsavsky said Allen's never-back-down play has him, and the defense, thrilled about the move. Allen has spent the last two seasons primarily on the practice squad. He's appeared in three games since being drafted in the fifth-round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

"If you like playing football, how much do you like hitting people? Marcus likes hitting people, so playing linebacker is no problem for him," Olsavsky said. "He hasn't done a lot of drills over his lifetime to play linebacker, but he's doing a fine job. Bringing Marcus into my room really pumped up the room. It got the others guys excited. It got the defense as a whole excited. Because now you get to see a guy and say, 'Wow, that guy can really do some stuff.'

"There are things inherently wrong. But the hardest thing about football is running into people, and Marcus has no problem doing that, so I have no problem coaching him."

With kinks to work out, Olsavsky believes Allen has the intelligence to make the move. He credited Allen for knowing the role of linebacker because of his knowledge playing safety.

His smarts are just one part that excited him, though. Olsavsky is a high-energy coach who is feeding very strongly off of having the former safety in his position room.

"He's a high-energy football-playing son of a gun," Olsavsky said. "That's what you like. That's probably why we drafted him. They say it takes a couple years for some players to develop, and that's hopefully what we're seeing right now. We're going to see Marcus in his third year, really develop into a real professional."

Noah Strackbein is a Publisher with AllSteelers. Follow Noah on Twitter @NoahStrack, and AllSteelers @si_steelers.