It was a Tell the Truth Monday on the Hoffman Show, and breaking news shortly before the show started that Jon Allen may miss the rest of the year with a torn pec forced Craig to tell his truth.
The question he had to truthfully answer: has Allen played his last snap as a Commander?
This is, of course a question we’ve asked in the past, most recently last offseason as a new regime came into town, and Allen seemingly expressed disinterest in being part of another rebuild – perhaps being labeled in a pejorative way as a result.
And sadly, Craig’s initial reaction was ‘it depends,’ before he settled on a sad reality.
“If I have to answer the question honestly, has Allen played his last snap in burgundy and gold, my answer is probably yes,” Hoffman said. “In a really cutthroat, cold business kind of way, it's not really that much of a reflection of Jon Allen, it’s just what the chart says, if you will. It’s not really specifically about Allen not being worthy of keeping around, it’s that this roster was poorly built by the previous administration, and the right thing to do is move on.”
Allen’s story would be a great one, the kid from Stonebridge playing for the Commanders, and Craig would love to see him here forever, even if Allen himself has seemingly been disdainful in the past of the previous losing, and the possibility of another rebuild this year.
“There have been times where just the frustrations boiled over, and maybe you look back and you're like, man, I wish I'd handled that a little bit differently, but I think by and large, he’s just been a human being through it all,” Hoffman said. “I do not fault him for being incredibly frustrated and thinking about potentially wanting to get out of here and not wanting to go through a rebuild during his experience in the NFL. Like, if you can go somewhere else and get a bunch of money, why wouldn't you? But he ultimately had a conversation with Adam Peters and realized this dude's the real deal, and he decided he wanted to stay, and so they got on the same page for this year.”
It happened, and after cleaning up some new scheme stuff, Allen had started to come around…and then, he goes down in Baltimore, and now it’s all over. But is it for good?
“I feel terrible for the hometown guy who looked like he was finally settling in and was gonna make a legitimate case to stay here and maybe be able to retire a Commander,” Craig said. “On one side, there’s the obvious fact that Johnny Newton was drafted at the same position with a pretty high draft pick, basically a late first-rounder drafted in the thirties, and he is on a rookie contract for the next three years. Allen, if you want to keep him next year, costs you basically $17 million; you have to pay $6 million against the cap no matter what, the proration of his signing bonus from the extension he signed, but you can save his $17 million base salary at no extra penalty by moving on.”
They can try to trade Allen, who would likely get a nice deal wherever he was sent, and it’s kind of a shame that this year’s trade deadline doesn’t have that as a possibility for him or Daron Payne to shed some of that salary – but, what if Washington DID want him?
“He’s gonna go on IR and at the end of the season, you figure out what you wanna do, but I do think though there's a chance he comes back,” Hoffman said. “He represents so much of what they want, and if they can find a price that works, you have a ton of flexibility. Maybe it’s a one-year extension, and if things go really well and you're winning, maybe he wants to come back again, and his level of play will determine his ultimate salary.”
All that said, though, money talks, and so do the Commanders’ needs.
“Allen’s still a well-respected, good football player, but when you need defensive ends and corners, expensive positions...you're gonna obviously address some of that in the draft next year, but can you find someone in free agency to give a bunch of money to in an off-season where you're gonna have as much or more cap space than every other team in the league?” Hoffman asked. “Realistically, if you have Daron Payne for at least next year, if you have Newton ready to be a star, you need to spend your resources somewhere else. That’s just responsible team management, and I hate it for him.”
Hoffman hopes Allen still joins us every Tuesday for his planned 9 a.m. call-in to the Junkies, which is in peril at least for this week, and despite him thinking in reality, he holds out hope for the fantasy.
“I would love for them to come to a deal that works for everybody and him to retire here, because what a cool story: the kid from Stonebridge going to practice in Ashburn and playing in Landover,” Hoffman said. “If he got to play his entire career in burgundy and gold, that'd be great, but rarely is that how it goes in the NFL. It stands for ‘not for long,’ and sometimes that can be your whole career or just your stint with the team.”