{"id":1017102,"date":"2026-10-03T02:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1017102\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T02:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:12:35","slug":"jets-braelon-allen-has-shot-to-prove-hes-workhorse-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1017102\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets’ Braelon Allen has shot to prove he’s ‘workhorse back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braelon Allen was honest ahead of the season about how important Year 3 was for him and proving his worth.<\/p>\n

A potentially significant moment in his young career has arrived.<\/p>\n

With Breece Hall (quad) out for Sunday\u2019s Week 4 game<\/a> against the Bears in Chicago, Allen becomes the Jets\u2019 top running back.<\/p>\n

Hall, who suffered the injury in the Week 3 loss to the Lions<\/a>, is considered week to week, meaning there\u2019s a possibility Allen will have more than one game as the lead rusher.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s injury<\/a> is a major blow to a Jets running game that was already struggling this year \u2014 they are averaging 3.3 yards per carry, which ranks 30th in the NFL. <\/p>\n

But Allen during training camp said he wanted to \u201cprove myself as a workhorse back.\u201d This is his opportunity to do exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an all-down back, I\u2019m a three-down back, I\u2019m more versatile than I get credit for,\u201d Allen told The Post after practice Friday. \u201cI\u2019m just hoping I continue to get more and more opportunities to show that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s ability to prove himself was stolen from him just four weeks into last season when he sprained his MCL after taking a hit while returning a kick against the Dolphins. It required surgery and ended his season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucked,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt was my first major injury, first surgery and all that. Kind of my season being taken away while I was kind of just getting into my groove and felt like I was figuring it out a little bit, it was tough. But it was definitely a learning experience. I\u2019ve grown so much from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely dark times through that process and I just knew \u2014 you have to decide how you want to come out of it on the other side. I wanted to make sure that I was gonna come back better, bigger, faster, stronger and more explosive. That was the mindset that I had, was just to get through it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BraelonBraelon Allen heads to the field before the Jets\u2019 Week 3 loss to the Lions. AP<\/p>\n

The injury abruptly ended the progress he made during a promising rookie season two years ago, when he rushed for 334 yards and two touchdowns. And the Jets bringing Hall back on a three-year deal worth $45.75 million this past offseason meant Allen remained firmly No. 2 in the pecking order. But for the moment, it\u2019s his show.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows who Breece is as a player,\u201d Allen said. \u201cOne of the premier running backs in the NFL. I\u2019m not trying to replace or be him in any way. I want to go out there and make my own name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen presents a much different profile than Hall, one of the league\u2019s best dual-threat running backs. Allen, at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds compared to the 5-11, 217-pound Hall, is bigger and more of a bruiser.<\/p>\n

\"BraelonBraelon Allen looks to avoid Trevor Nowaske during the Jets\u2019 Week 3 loss to the Lions. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a strong, physical, downhill runner,\u201d guard Joe Tippmann, who blocked for Allen at Wisconsin and is again blocking for him with the Jets, told The Post. \u201cI think what a lot of guys oversee is that he\u2019s fast. He\u2019s got the speed to get around the edge to make those open-field cuts and be able to break those tackles. I\u2019ve always said with Braelon, you can\u2019t one-arm tackle that guy. Nobody can. You gotta get two hands on him and wrap him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the insider\u2019s view on Gang Green\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Jets by Brian Costello, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Jets rushed for just 58 and 67 yards the last two weeks, respectively, both losses \u2014 a letdown after they imposed themselves on the ground with 152 rushing yards during their season-opening win over the Titans.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now without their star running back, but the offensive line believes it\u2019s identified the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of just getting caught up a little bit on the movement, the D-line\u2019s moving and stuff,\u201d Tippmann said. \u201cWe just gotta go back to our basics of running off the ball, getting up on the double teams, regardless of if they\u2019re moving or not. We can\u2019t just sit there and anticipate, \u2018Oh, they\u2019re gonna move.\u2019 We just gotta go, go get off the ball and go get on them. That\u2019s what really opens up those lanes. I think we\u2019re trending in the right direction. Last week, we definitely took a step back in the run game. We\u2019ll have bad games there, but it\u2019s trending in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

That trend, at least for this week, will hinge on a new RB1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braelon Allen was honest ahead of the season about how important Year 3 was for him and proving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1017103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,9],"class_list":["post-1017102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-football","tag-jets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117374559482530985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}