After RB1 -- Breece Hall -- left practice early with a groin injury , RB2 -- Braelon Allen -- had a pair of TD runs following his 31-yard TD ramble in the preseason opener against Tampa Bay last Friday night.
After practice Glenn was asked if he perceives a dropoff from Hall to Allen. And ever the diplomat, HC Aaron Glenn answered ... well ... diplomatically.
"Well here's my philosophy when it comes to that and I know that most people think that once you lose a starter, there's a huge drop-off," he said. "I like to look at it as all our guys are starters and there shouldn't be a drop-off. So, anytime we lose a player, I expect the next guy to come in and operate just as good. I think that you have to have that mentality, I think the players have to have that mentality, and for the most part, everywhere I've been, the guys have thought like that because injuries happen in this league. Listen, you don't want anybody getting hurt again, alright, but the next player has to be ready to go."
Hall is coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season and recently signed a new contract. Allen is coming off a season-ending knee injury that forced him to miss most of the season with an offseason of rehab starring him in the face. He embraced the challenge, staying around the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center and getting a big, strong, fast and explosive body even bigger, stronger, faster and more explosive.
"It was a lot of intensive work that went into that rehab, and especially for me already being a gym rat, and this goes back to my high school days," Allen said on Monday. "I've never been scared of the weight room, and honestly, kind of a second home. If I wasn't on the field training, I was in the weight room doing it. It sucked being hurt, but it's also kind of heaven at the same time. Like this is basically my job right now just to work out and basically put myself in the best shape that I could possibly be in. So I really just took full advantage of that process and was very intentional, and I feel great."
Entering his third season with the Green & White after a stellar career at Wisconsin, seeing Allen (6-1, 235) on the podium is incredibly impressive. The guy they call "Agent 0" (his jersey number) clearly made his time in the weight room pay off. That payoff came for all to see when Allen took a handoff from rookie CB Cade Klubnik in the first quarter, used blocks by TE Jeremy Ruckert and WR Tim Patrick and sped untouched into the end zone. He said the TD felt familiar.
"Kind of a sigh of relief, if I were to put into words," he said. "Obviously, I knew what I was capable of doing, and you know the type of player I am. But obviously, there's a lot of questions coming off an injury like that, so just being able to have that play felt good.
"At the beginning of it [rehab], when I wasn't able to do much and was kind of just sitting around. Once I got to move and everything, and started working out again, I didn't have much of a mental block at all. And then by the time OTAs minicamp came around, I felt like I was 100 percent right back to where I wanted to be. I think it's better. I think I'm faster, more explosive than I've ever been."
It's amazing how a mere 8 plays in a preseason game and a quick sprint to a TD can put one's mind at ease.
