Jon Allen said he liked what he heard from Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris in his comments to the media yesterday.
"I like to hear it, I'm not looking for a rebuild, I'm looking to win now and those comments were refreshing to hear," Allen told The Sports Junkies during his weekly appearance on Tuesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
Allen said that this declaration that he "wants to win and wants to win now" doesn't mean he's "outta here" if the Commanders go in a different direction, but it is important for him and his wife to take some time away from the game before he makes a rash decision or does or say something he might regret.
With head coach Ron Rivera's firing on Monday will come big changes and a culture change. When Allen was asked about some of the comments from Commanders players about the need for an improved culture, Allen said that he has told teammates "You haven't been here for as long as I have, so you haven't seen how far we've come first and foremost.
"Obviously when you lose eight games in a row, anything that you don't like is gonna be known," he continued. "You're not gonna have anything positive to say. The difference between winning and losing is so thin in the NFL and both of those Giants games, I'm looking at we shoulda won. The Bears game, we shoulda won. The Bears game. So you look at the games that we lost..."
At that point JP Flaim interjected, "But the Bears killed you." (The Thursday night game was 27-3 at halftime and ended 40-20 to Chicago.)
"Yeah. But I mean, based on what they did and based on who we are matchup-wise, I think that's a game that we should win, I truly believe that," he said, before adding that "we didn't show up that game."
Allen said that he did like the culture with former Washington head coach Jay Gruden's group.
"When people talk about culture there's two different types of cultures. You have the culture in the locker room and then you have culture of the above," he told the Junkies. "When Coach Gruden was our coach, the culture in the locker room was phenomenal. Loved the coaches, loved the players, it was just all the other stuff. That's where it can get a little confusing for outsiders and fans when we talk about culture.
"And I truly believe if Alex Smith doesn't get hurt, I truly believe that we win 10 to 11 games that season. We were already 6-2, 2-0 in the division, just beat the Cowboys and the Giants and we were on a roll. But that's the NFL."
He added that. he "enjoyed playing for Coach Gruden, but other circumstances were there that didn't allow him."
When asked about the current reported candidates for the Commanders' head coaching job, Allen said he had no preference and was glad to not have to do the hiring, but said the fan base deserves some winning.
Allen also gave the Junkies an update on his knee which kept him out of the season-finale loss to the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday. The defensive tackle said he "could have if he needed to," but after sitting with the then-head coach they decided it wasn't worth the risk.
And, it appears there are no plans for an offseason procedure, as it was "just wear and tear" from the grinding of "playing a lot of snaps" throughout the year, but Allen will be "going up to see some doctors later this month."
But, of course, first, the conversation was a bit lighter as talked about the world travel's upcoming trip to Easter Island (that's off the coast of South America for the Junkies who didn't know... which would be all of them at first) and Machu Picchu in Peru. And a bit about Allen's trip last year to the mountainous South Asian nation of Bhutan.
Listen for all that on the audio player above!
