The Eagles signed track star Devon Allen as a wide receiver earlier this offseason – and Allen isn’t playing around when it comes to making waves.
On a recent appearance on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s TakeOff podcast with John Clark, Allen laid out a challenge to his teammates: let’s race for $10K.
That challenge came to light when Clark noted that Allen ran a 4.35 40-yard dash at his pro day, just .01 ahead of what Slay ran at the NFL combine when he was coming out of college, and asked if Slay has challenged him at all.
“I know Slay is fast and a little older – I can’t talk much trash because I’m a 27-year-old rookie – but some of the guys have joked about racing me,” Allen said. “I’m okay with that, but being a pro track athlete, I don’t race for free, so I said $10,000 a race – and so far no one’s taken me up on that!”
The two-time Olympian in the 110-meter hurdles isn’t here to be a gimmick, even though he hasn’t played football since his final season at Oregon in 2016, but the Eagles have been receptive to his addition so far.
“Overall the sentiment has been positive; my teammates seem to be pretty excited, and think it’s cool I was an Olympian,” Allen said. “Some of the guys even came out to the Penn Relays as well.”
Related
Allen will be less than two weeks out from competing at the Track and Field World Championships when he reports to training camp, so he expects to be “the fastest I’ve been in my life” – and knows that’s his role if he makes the Eagles.
“My job is to be the fast guy; I’m one of the fastest men in the world, so it’s my job to show that on the field, and that’s something I’m hoping to do,” he said. “For sure I’m the fastest on the team, but I think we have the fastest wide receiver corps in the NFL – and one of the best wide receiver rooms, too.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN