Syracuse, NY. — LeQuint Allen built a reputation at Syracuse for his versatility, doing whatever was required to help Syracuse football to a win.<\/p>\n
During his rookie season in the NFL, the seventh-round pick has only built on that, with teammates already proclaiming him the best pass-blocker at his position in the NFL and adding kick return duties to his skillset.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the running back and his Jacksonville Jaguar teammates will host the Buffalo Bills in one of the most compelling games in the first round of the NFL Playoffs<\/p>\n
While Allen is unlikely to have a starring role, his first season in the NFL has already been an unqualified success. <\/p>\n
The majority of seventh-round picks don\u2019t crack the active roster of their NFL teams. Allen told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that he\u2019ll be active for the playoff game this weekend. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s played in every game for Jacksonville this season and, despite his draft status, he never questioned whether he\u2019d stick in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was ready,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI\u2019ve played this game since I was a little kid. I never doubted that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As his rookie season approaches its end, it\u2019s clear that Allen has won over his new teammates the same way he won over Syracuse \u2013 with an enthusiastic approach, a do-anything attitude and an infectious laugh \u2013 making good on his decision to leave school early and head to the NFL. <\/p>\n
\u201cLeQuint Allen is one of my favorite teammates I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Jacksonville fifth-year offensive lineman Robert Hainsey told Jaguars reporter Mia O\u2019Brien in November after a win over the San Diego Chargers. \u201cHe\u2019s the best pass-blocking running back in the NFL \u2014 and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen left Syracuse after the Orange\u2019s 10-win season in 2024 with one year of eligibility remaining.<\/p>\n
Following the Orange\u2019s 52-35 win over Washington State in the Holiday Bowl, Allen said he met with Fran Brown to discuss the future.<\/p>\n
Allen said there was no moment in that meeting that changed his mind or solidified his decision. <\/p>\n
He is making just under $900,000 as a seventh-round pick in the NFL this season, according to Spotrac. That will jump to over $1 million in Year 2.<\/p>\n
Allen said Syracuse offered him enough money that a return would have been a viable option if that\u2019s what he wanted to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey offered me money,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI just felt it was the right time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen said that he began the year intending for it to be his last in college. And nothing happened during the year that changed his mind.<\/p>\n
He was one of two players in college football with 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards, joining New York Giants rookie Cam Skattebo. The Orange won 10 games, tying for the most wins in a season for Syracuse its 11-0-1 season in 1987.<\/p>\n
During their final meeting, <\/a>Allen said that he and Brown agreed nothing happened that would have changed his charted course. They parted ways on a positive note, with Allen leaving as one of the most beloved players in the program in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ended it the right way, having the season we had, the way we wanted,\u201d Allen said, before offering a brief correction that highlighted his self confidence. \u201cMaybe not quite the way we wanted, but pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n Like other key members of the 2024 team, Allen maintained high expectations, a trait that he carried with him to the pros.<\/p>\n He said he never questioned whether he\u2019d make it in the NFL, never wondered if he was good enough to stick in the league despite his draft status.<\/p>\n In addition to his on-field efforts, Allen stayed at Syracuse through a judicial affairs issue in which he faced a suspension for defending himself while coming to the aid of a teammate in a late-night scuffle between students. <\/p>\n Allen told Syracuse.com that his settlement with the school included a promise that he wouldn\u2019t discuss the incident publicly and he would continue to abide by that pledge.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t talk about it,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI can\u2019t. I\u2019d love to, but I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s loyalty to his team remains striking.<\/p>\n Many players of his ability would have chosen to leave, seeking a fresh start at a place where he\u2019d be a valued football player without any of the accompanying stress. <\/p>\n All Allen would say about that period is that he had options around the country if he\u2019d wanted to leave but that he elected to stay.<\/p>\n At Syracuse, Allen became renowned among his teammates for the energy that he brought to Syracuse practices, a standard that ensure that his teammates would work hard to match him or find themselves shown up by his effort.<\/p>\n He brought the same approach to training camp in Jacksonville, where he was in the mix during an array of Jacksonville\u2019s training camp shoving matches because of the physical way he practiced.<\/p>\n He was part of Jacksonville\u2019s first in-team scuffle with Jacksonville linebacker Branson Comb<\/a>s and at the center of another dust-up with the Miami Dolphins.<\/a><\/p>\n Allen said he never considered toning down his efforts to appease Jacksonville\u2019s veterans. In fact, he said, he believes they appreciate his approach. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce we put the pads on in training camp, he and (linebacker Ventrell Miller) had a pretty gnarly blitz in practice where you were like, \u2018Woah, you\u2019ve got to take a step back here,\u2019 Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen said about Allen earlier this year. \u201dHow he stepped up, how we met him it was just a great rep from both sides, honestly. And you saw [Le]Quint\u2019s reaction after and you\u2019re like, \u2018OK, this guy\u2019s got something.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n That something has carried over. <\/p>\n Allen has been active for Jacksonville every game this season, averaging just over 15 snaps per game. Used primarily as a third-down back, 60 percent of his offensive snaps have come on pass plays.<\/p>\n He has been highlighted by the Jaguars on social media videos multiple times this season, once for taking the blame in a team meeting for missing a block and another for blocking and, most recently, for standing up Oakland Pro Bowl defensive lineman Maxx Crosby in pass protection.<\/p>\n \u201cLeQuint exemplifies so much of what being a Jaguar is and what it means,\u201d Coen said earlier this year. \u201cThe guy loves football, he loves to compete, he loves his teammates. He\u2019ll do anything for these guys. And I think that shows in the way that he plays, his effort, everybody sees it and it helps continue to elevate the standard of what effort actually means.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syracuse, NY. — LeQuint Allen built a reputation at Syracuse for his versatility, doing whatever was required to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57393,8747,116,118,117,8748,57394],"class_list":["post-112824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-gm5_0223","tag-helmet-off","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nflraw25","tag-no-helmet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}