What Does Jonathan Allen Bring to the Vikings?

When the Minnesota Vikings signed Jonathan Allen this off-season, the first reaction for many Vikings’ fans was that he’ll be an instant upgrade to the Vikings’ defensive interior who can be more of a pass rushing threat than they had in that group last season. After all, Allen is a two-time Pro Bowler and first-round pick who’s enjoyed a solid career with the Commanders before being released earlier this year to save cap space.

But entering his ninth season at age 30, what does Allen have left in the tank? And what will his role be with the Vikings at this stage of his career?

Looking Back at Allen’s Career-to-Date

Looking back at Allen’s production and season PFF grades (below) we see an ascending player through his rookie contract, peaking in 2021 and descending since then. He spent over half his rookie season on IR with a foot injury and did the same last season with a torn pectoral injury, although he was able to come back late in the season.

But overall, Allen’s career looks like that of many players entering their ninth season at age 30 and on the downside of their career. Should that trend hold, Allen would likely be a disappointment for Vikings fans looking for Allen to be an upgrade to the defensive tackle position.

PFF

It wouldn’t be the first time the Vikings have brought in a veteran defensive tackle in recent years hoping to upgrade their interior pass rush only to be disappointed by the result. Dean Lowry and Jerry Tillery both disappointed after all. Might Allen be another in this string of disappointments?

A Closer Look at Allen’s Recent Seasons

The first thing that’s worth mentioning is that with Dean Lowry and Jerry Tillery, they were never good. It’s one thing taking on an older vet that’s never really produced and another taking on a older vet that has produced at a high level but seen his production slip in recent years. In the first case, coaches may see some promise in measurables or technique development; they may try to leverage those for more production- which is difficult for a player that’s been in the league several years and never really caught on. In the second case, coaches may look at his tape in the recent down years compared to earlier years. Is the player more consistently slowing down? Is he easily fatigued? Is there an injury issue? Has his role/usage changed? Has something else changed that may have affected his production?

Sometimes the answer is the most common one: age is catching up to him and his body is no longer producing like it once did. But sometimes there is another reason for the drop in production.

Pass Rush Stats

While his pass rush PFF grade has slipped some, his quarterback pressure numbers have been stable with upper single digit sacks over a full season and around 50 total pressures. He had roughly half those numbers last season because he missed nine games due to injury.

The above graphs show Allen’s PFF pass rush grade, pass rush win rate, and PFF pass rush productivity (a measure of pressure rate weighted based on sack, hit, or hurry). Overall there is some recent decline in PFF grade and pass rush win rate but pass rush productivity has been steady since 2021.

Context Behind Allen’s Pass Rush Stats

Looking at Allen’s pass rush stats over the years, it’s important to add context to those numbers. Things like supporting cast, double-team rates, and scheme changes can affect a defensive tackle’s productivity- along with age and injury.

In Allen’s case, his rookie season stats (2017) were skewed as he only had just over 100 snaps on the season before going on IR after Lisfranc surgery. After that, Allen’s stats ramped up until peaking over the 2020-2022 seasons, which was the best stretch for him in terms of supporting cast at the other defensive line positions. Edge rushers Montez Sweat and Chase Young had their best seasons (although not always available) and Daron Payne continued to be solid at the other defensive tackle spot. In 2023 the Commanders moved on from both Chase Young and Montez Sweat, which led to both Allen and Payne having down seasons. That continued in 2024 as the Commanders didn’t have a big threat off the edge, hurting Payne especially as Allen also missed half the season.

Defensive tackles need edge rushers who can at least contain the quarterback in the pocket, keeping him where they can pressure him. Without that, it makes the job for defensive tackles rushing the passer that much more difficult, especially with more mobile quarterbacks.

Allen also faced what appeared to be above average double-team rates against both run and pass. While he lined up anywhere between straight up on the center to straight up on the left tackle, his most frequent spot was inside the left guard. That often led to his being double-teamed by the left guard and center. But even when he lined up at other alignments further out he often drew double-teams when he made an inside move.

It’s difficult to get double-team stats on pass rush snaps but having watched a lot of Allen’s film last season and some in previous seasons, he looked to be double-teamed on at last 50% of his pass rush snaps overall. The Commanders run a 4-3 defensive front and typically offensive lines are more likely to double team the defensive tackle on their left side so this wouldn’t be unusual in those circumstances and given that Allen was their best pass rushing defensive tackle.

Run Defense

The main drop in Allen’s production in recent years has come in run defense over the past two seasons. He was doubled teamed in run defense snaps about half the time last season, which was the same as Harrison Phillips and Jonathan Bullard for the Vikings last season, but about 15% more often than Jerry Tillery. That appears to be fairly consistent with previous seasons too.

There doesn’t seem to be any immediate context for Allen’s drop in run defense PFF grade over the past two seasons, although run defense was never Allen’s strength. It is worth noting however that as a team, the Commanders went from the fifth-best run defense team PFF grade in 2021, to the 13th best in 2022, to 31st in 2023 and 29th in 2024.

That goes well beyond Allen’s contribution to run defense and suggests perhaps a coaching or scheme issue although they had head coach Ron Riviera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio for all those years except 2024.

It’s also worth noting that in 2023, Washington traded away both starting edge rushers mid-season, signaling they were writing off the rest of the season. They lost the last eight games of their season. The Commanders defense finished last in points allowed (by a significant margin) and yards allowed. From a team and particularly defensive morale perspective, that can explain some of the decline in performance. Allen himself had a bit to say about that. Although that doesn’t explain the continued poor run defense in 2024 which was a 12-5 year ending in the conference championship.

Supporting cast may not be as big a factor in declining run defense for Allen compared to pass rush, but it can be an ancillary factor.

Overall, it’s certainly possible that Allen’s decline in run defense may be at least in part age-related, but there may be other factors as well. For example, in 2024, Allen played in eleven games, seven of which were against top run/run blocking teams.

Looking Ahead to This Season

There are a few reasons for optimism regarding Allen’s performance this season with the Vikings. The first is that Allen will have a better supporting cast along the defensive line so offenses won’t be able to focus on him as much and that may lead to his being in a better position to pressure the quarterback.

The second reason is that Allen is going from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base front and I would not be surprised if Brian Flores employed a five-man front on a significant percentage of snaps. That makes it nearly impossible for Allen to be double-teamed and should help his production. A five-man front consisting of Andrew Van Ginkel (or Dallas Turner), Javon Hargrave, Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Allen, and Jonathan Greenard is going to be a tough matchup for any offensive line in the league.

The third reason is that with Jalen Redmond and an edge rusher being able to take a lot of defensive tackle snaps this season, that could lead to Allen having a bit of a decline in his total number of snaps per game, which may be good for him at age 30 and help his efficiency metrics.

It looks like Allen may lineup primarily on the right side as he did with the Commanders, although in a traditional five-man Bear/Penny front he’d lineup as a 3-technique outside the left guard rather than his more frequent position inside the left guard while he was with the Commanders. However, this is Brian Flores’ defense so there may be a good degree of variance.

Bottom Line

This is a good situation for Jonathan Allen to come into after eight seasons in Washington, and he said that was a key reason- along with team culture- why he signed with the Vikings. He has a good supporting cast along the defensive line and is likely to benefit from increased one-on-one opportunities. Certainly seeing some decline in production over the last couple of seasons is concerning, whatever the circumstances. But looking into it a bit more it doesn’t seem like it was primarily an age issue. In any case, even his lower production as a pass rusher the last couple seasons was better than what the Vikings got from any of their defensive tackles last season. Changing teams and everything that goes with it can be challenging, and sometimes it takes a season for a free agent to really get settled in with his new home and scheme and teammates, but I suspect Allen will benefit from his new surroundings and that will be a positive for his production.

Allen turned 30 earlier this year, but to hear him talk he’s only about half-way through his career. In a recent interview with Chris Long he talked about joining the Vikings, last season, and other things, but toward the end he talked about his goal of getting to 100 sacks (he has 42) and how he may play for another eight seasons- Calais Campbell-like longevity. We’ll see. But that doesn’t sound like a short-timer just collecting a paycheck at the tail end of his career.

Poll

Compared to Jonathan Allen’s most recent seasons, his first season in Minnesota he will be…

• 64%

  Better

  (11 votes)

• 0%

  Worse

  (0 votes)

• 35%

  About the Same

  (6 votes)

17 votes total

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