NFL Draft Profile: Running Back Anthony Allen
by BirdGT on Jan 24, 2011 8:00 AM EST
in Georgia Tech Football
Email
PrintAllen transitioned to B-back (fullback) in 2010, which is the featured rushing position in Johnson's offense. He tallied 240 carries at 5.5 yards per carry. Georgia Tech's red zone woes limited Allen to only 7 touchdowns on the season. Allen was the fifth straight 1,000 yard rusher for the Yellow Jackets.
The last Georgia Tech fullback taken in the Draft was Jonathan Dwyer. He was taken by the Steelers in the 6th round and was the 188th pick overall. If we were to compare Dwyer and Allen statistically, we'd see two completely different styles of running. Dwyer had the explosion and burst to take it the distance while Allen made better reads and always picked up yardage. Check out the chart:
Dwyer averaged at least 1 yard in 88% of his carries from 2007-2009 or basically was stopped for no gain around 11% of the time. Allen, on the other hand, was only stopped for no gain 4% of the time. Anthony also had a higher percentage of carries go for 4 yards or more. Unfortunately, Allen was on a bad offensive unit that couldn't alleviate any pressure for the fullback position. He was consistently running against 8 and 9 in the box limiting his big plays. And despite all of this Allen was tabbed 1st Team All-ACC. According to Jason Kirk, Allen should hear his name somewhere between the 4th-6th rounds.
There are several good highlights of Allen's strength as a runner (clip 1, clip 2, clip 3). Allen's downsides are a lack of breakaway speed and a tendency to fumble as indicated in the stats. He had six fumbles in 2010 and that may be a discouraging factor to a lot of teams in the Draft as well. Allen's last chance to impress scouts before the Combine and individual workouts will be at the Senior Bowl in Mobile on January 29th.
9 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Surprised
I’m surprised that Allen was expected to be drafted. I hadn’t heard much about him the draft. I don’t follow the NFL draft closely (which is to say not at all), so help me out here: Is being in the 4th-6th round a high, medium, or low pick?
On the comparion between Dwyer and Allen, it would be interesting to see the yardage gain for those first ten yards broken down into one yard increments. I’m just curious to see how fast that 95.9% number goes to 55.7% and then to 11.4%.
My first thought was that some of the difference between Dwyer and Allen can probably be attributed to the QB read accuracy. If the QB makes a bad read and hands the ball off when he should keep it, then the BB is going to have more zero or negative yardage plays since he’s running into an unblocked defender. However, the 2008 and 2009 stats are comparable except for the big plays, which I think is generally attributed to defensive adjustments. So, if we assume that the QB read accuracy was consistent, then Allen really looks good in the short yardage category. His numbers look even better if you consider that in the last 4.5 games the #2 QB was running the offense and that Allen played behind a younger OL for the entire year.
Then again, maybe that was a specious argument and the real reason was that CPJ knew he had a different style BB with a younger OL and thus called plays that maximized the short yardage gain at the expense of big play potential, figuring that OL couldn’t get the blocks down fast enough and even if it could, the BB couldn’t take advantage.
by Dive Keep and Pitch on Jan 24, 2011 1:45 PM EST reply actions
There are only seven rounds to the draft, so 4th-6th is a low round draft pick. However, it’s better than being undrafted, which many players are. This would mean that he’ll probably have to fight to make the team’s roster, and even then, he probably won’t get much playing time early in his career unless the other runners are injured or ineffective.
My analysis of Allen is that he cannot run well in traffic. He got caught in the trash right around the line of scrimmage and went down a lot. I don’t see him as a fumbler…maybe he was just unlucky. Dwyer, on the other hand, ran really well in traffic and was able to break many runs that originally looked like he would go down. The two probably have similar speed.
If Allen wasn’t as good of a runner in traffic, that would explain the difference quite nicely. You won’t get very many big runs if you’re going down like a sack of flour at first contact. I like this theory.
by Dive Keep and Pitch on Jan 25, 2011 11:34 AM EST up reply actions
Except that it doesn’t explain the apparent ability of Allen to avoid no gain plays at about one-third the rate of Dwyer.
by Dive Keep and Pitch on Jan 25, 2011 11:56 AM EST up reply actions
Could be a lot of things
Better reads by Nesbitt, less focus on the B-Back and more on the quarterback, or maybe something else. I do remember that Dwyer would try to do too much if the plays broke down sometimes.
Thanks.
So it looks something like this:
Yards Percent
>=1 96
>=2 86.5
>=3 75.5
>=4 56.5
>=5 43.5
>=6 32.5
>=7 25.5
>=8 22.5
>=9 18.5
>=10 12
With the exception of the jump from 3 to 4, it’s a fairly linear drop until 7+ yards at which point it flattens out a bit.
by Dive Keep and Pitch on Jan 25, 2011 11:54 AM EST up reply actions
concerning reads
Maybe a good way to tell if the reads were good would be to break down the guys tackling the B-Back. If there’s a high percentage of DL, then the reads are bad. If it’s a high percentage of LB’s and DB’s, then the reads were right.
I write stuff From the Rumble Seat.
That is so logical
and so insightful. Wish I had thought of that.
by Atlanta's original team on Jan 25, 2011 10:40 AM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on From The Rumble Seat
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
SHOP THE FROM THE RUMBLE SEAT STORE
