Josh Allen was considered by some to be the best defensive prospect in the 2019 NFL Draft class, and he was ultimately taken by the defense-first Jacksonville Jaguars with the seventh overall pick.
Allen will be joining a Jaguars defensive unit that is already stout as it is, but Jacksonville is hoping that he can take the defense to even greater heights.
During Jacksonville's first preseason game on Thursday night, we saw some flashes of his potential, as he got things started by bringing down Baltimore Ravens running back Gus Edwards for a loss on the first play of the game.
While that marked Allen's only tackle, he looked good for the remainder of the contest and clearly had an impact.
Afterward, Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone spoke glowingly of the rookie pass rusher.
“I feel really good about where he is,” Marrone said after what ended up being a 29-0 loss, via the Jaguars' official team website. “You got to remember, we all didn’t see him that much in OTAs and mandatory minicamp because we rested him [due to a knee contusion]. We didn’t see him practice so we brought him in slowly during camp and all of a sudden today it looked like he stepped up another level, which is what you want to see.”
Allen, who played his collegiate football at the University of Kentucky, is coming off of a monster senior campaign in which he racked up 88 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, 17 sacks, five forced fumbles, and a couple of fumble recoveries.
He totaled 31.5 sacks over the course of four collegiate seasons.
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