Linebacker and Kicker

If Brian Allen starts to play a lot of snaps as a linebacker this year, then the season has gone down the drain.

If only life were so simple to predict. Since you enjoy traveling down the pessimistic road with your hypotheticals, for the heck of it I'll go the opposite direction. Maybe this dude is a diamond in the rough who just needs a chance. Who would have thought Kurt Warner would step in and take St. Louis to a title? Who would have thought Villanova would beat Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas? Who would have thought the Miracle on Ice would happen? And so on...

Smile Curmudgeon!

TAFKAS:

You are absolutely right. Low probablitiy events happen somewhere in the universe every day. Villanova did beat Georgetown; NC State won a natinal championship with a mediocre team; Kurt Warner had one hell of a run in the NFL.

But if I am a betting man - and I am - I prefer to ponder what is likely to happen as opposed to what could very well happen but isn't all that likely to happen. For example, here are some things that could happen that I discussed just today in my Internet column:


Tonya Harding could win a legitimate fight. [But I won't bet on that.]

Willaim Hung could sing on key. [Would that we were so fortunate.]

The Fridge could become a spokesman for the American Heart Association. [When pigs fly - and the Fridge doesn't shoot them down and eat them.]

Dick Vitale could become a mime. [Would that it were so.]


I will hereby summarize everything that I know about Brian Allen without doing any research on him. He went to a major college because I remember seeing him in college and they don't televise games involving East Buttcheek Tech. But I really don't recall where he went to school; force me to guess and I'll say Georgia.

He has been out of college about 3 or 4 years now and the only team I know he has played for is the Panthers. He played mostly on special teams but I do recall him playing in some of the defensive sets for the Panthers - just not very often or very well.

Feel free to correct anything I said here because it is all from memory and impressions of watching lots of football games. My memory is hardly infallible!

Could he be a sleeper ready to emerge as such a great linebacker that people here on The Warpath will be so smitten with him that they begin to call for him to start over LaVar Arrington? It's possible - - but I'm not taking that bet. More than likely, if the Redskins are down to him as a starting LB who is on the field for most of the defensive snaps before Thanksgiving, the season will be "circling the drain". :Flush:

actually allen is a hustle guy, and with williams as our DC, anything can happen. he went to FSU and is a 5th year guy out of FSU and was named 2nd team all acc his senior year. he has also made several starts with the panthers as a OLB and last was the leading tackler for the panthers last year on SP that was ranked 5th overall last season. ;)

oh yeah, he was drafted in '01 by the rams in the third rd

jrocx69:

Thanks for the info on Brian Allen. I would not have guessed FSU as his school for a long time.

I have no recollection of him with the Rams; did he ever play there? Was he there for their Super Bowl team? I don't remember any of that...

I have no doubt that he can help the special teams here - partially because the special teams here were not very good last year. My comment had to do with him starting and playing lots of snaps as linebacker. For that to happen, Arrington and/or Washington and/or Marshall and/or Clemons will have to be out of action. That would be a disaster for the team and the season would be hugely disappointing if it were to happen.

Didn't he also go to the Texans in the expansion draft? I think he went to either the Texans or the Ravens at some point. Could be wrong.

Curmudgeon, what kind of career run-down would you have given on Antonio Pierce before last season began? Might you have said that if Mike Barrow got hurt and Antonio Pierce was playing in his stead, the season would have gone down the drain? Or did you see Pierce's big season coming?

Sure, the Skins were bad last year, but not because of the defense. TAFKAS is right, you never know.

That doesn't mean we should expect anything more than good special teams play from him. But I've never met someone who could accurately predict the way an NFL season is going to go. You just never know.

Allen was signed to help shore up the special teams unit and that's about the extent of this signing.

There's plenty of depth ahead of him, I highly doubt we'll see him on the field much unless we're decimated by injuries.

I see Allen coming in to help shore up our Special Teams tackling - its 1/3 of the game of football, but so oftentimes overlooked, a missed tackle can lead to REAL bad things. If he ends up playing a lot then I'd say we are looking at another bad season, but he COULD in theory have a Antonio Pierce type year!

On another note I remember seeing somewhere that Todd Franz might not make it with the Packers, would you guys bring him back for ST work?

I would. I think Franz is decent, and we're in need of DBs -- he knows the system.