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Dwayne Allen

American football player (born 1990)

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Dwayne Lamont Allen (born February 24, 1990) is an American former professional football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for the Clemson Tigers, winning the John Mackey Award in 2011. Allen was selected in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts, where spent his first five seasons. During his final two seasons, Allen played for the New England Patriots, making consecutive Super Bowl appearances in each and winning Super Bowl LIII.

01Early life

Allen was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, and played high school football for the Terry Sanford Bulldogs. During his career, he had 68 receptions for 1,257 yards.

Allen in 2016
Allen in 2016

02College career

Allen attended Clemson University, where he played for the Clemson Tigers football team from 2008 to 2011. He was redshirted in 2008. In 2009, he started six of 14 games and had 10 receptions for 108 yards and three touchdowns. He started all 13 games in 2010 and was a second-team All-ACC selection after recording 33 receptions for 373 yards with a touchdown.

Through the first seven games of his junior season, Allen had 27 receptions for 381 yards and four touchdowns.

Allen was named the 2011 recipient of the John Mackey Award on December 8, 2011, at the Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Show. He graduated from Clemson on August 9, 2014.

03Professional career

Pre-draft measurables
HeightWeightArm lengthHand span40-yard dash10-yard split20-yard split20-yard shuttleThree-cone drillVertical jumpBroad jumpBench press
6 ft 3+18 in
(1.91 m)
255 lb
(116 kg)
33 in
(0.84 m)
9+58 in
(0.24 m)
4.89 s1.73 s2.85 s4.37 s7.12 s32 in
(0.81 m)
9 ft 2 in
(2.79 m)
27 reps
All values from NFL Combine

Indianapolis Colts

Allen was drafted in the third round with the 64th overall pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2012 NFL draft. He was the second tight-end taken in the draft as well as the second taken by the Colts. He helped fellow rookie Andrew Luck lead the Colts to an 11-5 record. Despite their draft positions, Allen actually bested his teammate (taken 34th overall), Coby Fleener, in overall production ranking 7th best among the league's rookie receiving leaders. Allen and fellow rookie teammates T. Y. Hilton, Fleener, Vick Ballard, and LaVon Brazill combined for an NFL record 3,108 yards, the most by any rookie class playing for an NFL club since the 1970 NFL merger. The second best performance was the Colts' 1999 rookie class with 2,751 yards. Allen finished the 2012 season with 521 receiving yards on 45 catches, and 3 touchdowns. He was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. Allen was intended to be a large part of new Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton's offense in 2013, but was placed on the injured reserve following a hip injury in the first game of the season. He finished the season with one catch for 20 yards and a touchdown.

Allen battled a knee injury late in the 2014 season, but started 13 games for the Colts and finished with 29 receptions, 395 yards, and 8 touchdowns. On November 8, 2015, Allen was poked in the eye by Denver Broncos' cornerback Aqib Talib. Talib was given a one-game suspension for the incident the following day. On December 30, 2015, Allen was placed on injured reserve.

On March 7, 2016, Allen signed a four-year, $29.4 million extension with the Colts.

New England Patriots

On March 9, 2017, the Colts traded Allen and a 2017 sixth-round draft pick to the New England Patriots for a 2017 fourth-round draft pick. The trade was the first between the Colts and Patriots since 1985.

On November 12, 2017, on Sunday Night Football, Allen made his first reception with the Patriots when he caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady. The play made Allen the 68th NFL player to catch a touchdown from Brady. Allen reached Super Bowl LII with the Patriots, but lost 41-33 to the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 2018 with the Patriots, Allen only had three catches for 27 yards during the season, although he was praised by the team for his blocking. Allen won Super Bowl LIII with the Patriots, when they defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3.

On March 2, 2019, Allen was released by the Patriots.

Miami Dolphins

On March 9, 2019, Allen was signed by the Miami Dolphins to a two-year, $6.5 million deal. He was released with an injury settlement on August 31, 2019.

Allen with the New England Patriots in 2017
Allen with the New England Patriots in 2017

04NFL career statistics

Regular season

Year Team Games Receiving Rushing Fumbles
GPGSRecYdsAvgLngTDAttYdsAvgLngTDFumLost
2012IND 16164552111.6403351.73010
2013IND 1112020.020T1, , , , , 00
2014IND 13132939513.641T8, , , , , 10
2015IND 1312161096.8211111.01000
2016IND 14143540611.623T6, , , , , 10
2017NE 16810868.6221, , , , , 00
2018NE 1383279.0210, , , , , 00
Total86721391,56411.34120461.53030

Postseason

Year Team Games Receiving Rushing Fumbles
GPGSRecYdsAvgLngTDAttYdsAvgLngTDFumLost
2012IND 1145112.8220, , , , , 00
2014IND 3211908.2181, , , , , 00
2017NE 30, , , , , , , , , , 00
2018NE 31, , , , , , , , , , 00
Total104151419.4221000.00000
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Dwayne Allen, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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