CJ Allen has flashes of being a 3 down impact Linebacker. His combination of top end athleticism, fluidity, downhill anticipation, and tackling prowess is covetable immediately and he has some impressive coverage reps to boot. Tack on clear leadership traits and constant high effort and you got a MIKE Linebacker to lead a defense.
But there is still things to work on, with coverage instincts and play fake recognition being the core ones.
These are coachable, but until corrected are exposable. Aggressive Blitz Scheme Defenses will love CJ Allen as they won’t put him in coverage situations as often or try to keep his assignments simple in coverage. But the warts are there that keep him from being a Round 1 Grade or even blue chip Linebacker prospect in this talented class.
He is still only 20 (turn 21 in March) and was a 30 game starter in Kirby Smart’s Georgia Defense over the last 3 years. Allen might not have even reached his athletic peak yet (a terrifying prospect for opposing offenses) and has time to continue to fine tune his dropback instincts. The flashes are there, and teams will take CJ Allen expecting the best is yet to come.
For the Colts, Allen wouldn’t fulfill their coverage needs for the middle of the field at first. If the Colts added him, it would be to replace Zaire Franklin as the starting MIKE Linebacker, become a new young leader of the defense, and attack downhill early on his career. Allen would provide a major boost in athleticism, tackling, and hustle in the middle of the defense, helping set the tone for a likely retooled front. More additions would still be needed to find his partner on the weak side at WILL Linebacker for more coverage ability in the short term, but under Lou Anarumo’s tutelage the hope would be that Allen would hone his coverage instincts over time to pair with his athletic gifts for a big leap in his drop back abilities.