Braelon Allen Must Be Sold-High in Fantasy Football After a 116-Yard Breakout Game
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Braelon Allen is coming off a career game in Week 5, rushing 24 times for 116 yards and a game-winning touchdown. He is highly rated going into Week 6 against the Patriots. My latest projections rank Allen as a top-20 running back in fantasy football and a must-start. However, fantasy managers must think about the long term, which means trading Allen while the window is open.
The Case of Braelon Allen
The biggest issue is glaring — Breece Hall is nearing his return. The expectation is that Hall stays out through Week 6 and returns in Week 7 against the Miami Dolphins. At that point, Allen's recent success matters little, and he takes a backseat.
Hall had injured his quad late in the Jets Week 3 game against the Lions. We can pretty much call Hall as having played all three games. In that span, the following were the rushing usage splits of Hall and Allen.
Player | Rushing Snaps | Rushing Attempts |
|---|---|---|
Breece Hall | 56 | 51 |
Braelon Allen | 24 | 19 |
The split has been 70-30% in Hall's favor. If Allen does have another successful week this coming Sunday, he has a case for a closer short-term split. Nonetheless, I cannot imagine Allen closing in on more than 40% of this rushing offense.
Both players have shared similar receiving roles as the RB1 in 2026. Hall averaged 3.3 targets per game in Weeks 1-3. Allen averaged 2.5 targets per game but ran more routes per game in Weeks 4-5.
Allen's inflated Week 5 was also partly due to the weather situation. It rained heavily during most of that game. That made both teams play run-heavy. The Jets passed the ball 53% of the time, down from 60% over the first four games.
The Jets got Allen over the hump with a late-game 22-yard touchdown, which put him over 100 yards for the game. It took 24 rushing attempts to get there, much more than he was projected to.
New York's offense is nothing like the Lions', the Rams', or the Bears'. They cannot support two running backs in fantasy football like others can. Let's take a look at the Jets' rushing offense and its run blocking.
The best telltale of effective run blocking is the statistic Yards Before Contact per Attempt. The Jets rank 8th-worst in that statistic: 2.1 YBC/Attempt. Thus, the run blocking isn't that impressive.
At a higher pass rate and with a below-average run block, Allen will lose all of his fantasy value once Hall is back.
I have often had Allen projected in the RB45-60 range when Hall has been active. Yet FantasyPros ranks Allen as RB36 in its rest-of-season rankings. He is valued higher than he should be, and just one week (Week 6) of starting status won't give you a huge bump in your playoff chances.
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Thomas Carelli is a sportswriter based on Northern New Jersey. He is a massive New York Jets and Mets fan, but that is not where is sports fandom stops. He loves to watch and play golf, all things football, baseball, and much more. If he can watch it, he will. Thomas graduated from William Paterson University in 2018 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sport Management. He spent 4 years working at a local golf course, volunteered past PGA events, and spent some part-time experience with the New York Jets events team. His passions for sport runs deep and his articles show for it.