PFF snubbing Jonathan Allen from 2021 All-Pro Team is laughable

The Washington Football Team failed to improve upon their seven-win mark from last season, but that can largely be attributed to an unprecedented number of injuries to important players and a poorly-timed COVID-19 outbreak that decimated the roster just as the team started sniffing the playoffs.

In a vacuum, there’s plenty of reasons to be bullish on the club’s future.

One of those reasons is Jonathan Allen, who proved yet again in 2021 that he’s one of the best defensive tackles in the game.

The 26-year-old game-wrecker was a model of consistency on a roster that was otherwise plagued by inconsistency and was voted to his first Pro Bowl after signing a four-year, $72 million extension last offseason.

In terms of post-season recognitions, Allen was voted as Washington’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

As far as on-field hardware is concerned, fans are impatiently waiting to see if the NFL will do right by Allen and make him an All-Pro.

While there’s no way to know if the league feels Allen is All-Pro worthy, we now know where Pro Football Focus stands on the matter, because he wasn’t one of four defensive tackles listed in PFF’s highly-anticipated reveal.

Editor’s note: The NFL revealed its All-Pro rosters on Friday and Allen didn’t make the cut on either squad. He received two votes for interior DL. This article was written beforehand and only takes into account PFF’s point of view. 

Jonathan Allen was snubbed from PFF’s All-Pro Team.

We’re not going to pretend like Allen being snubbed nullifies everything he accomplished this season. Fans in Washington know that he performed like an All-Pro, and PFF’s opinion doesn’t mean anything in the big picture.

With that said, this was a pretty egregious omission on Pro Football Focus’ part, especially after Allen made their midseason All-Pro squad and his production didn’t waver over the second half of the schedule.

There’s no sense arguing that Allen should’ve made the team over Aaron Donald. The Rams superstar is the de facto Defensive Player of the Year every season, even though he’ll likely lose out to TJ Watt his time around.

We’ll even give PFF the Cameron Heyward nod after the longtime Steeler enjoyed his most productive season at age 32. However, the Chiefs’ Chris Jones and the Dolphins’ Christian Wilkins getting second-team over Allen is ludicrous.

If you want to say Jones deserved a spot, that’s fine. He was unblockable after the Chiefs came to their senses and pushed him back inside. We’d still argue Allen was the more consistent player over 17 games, but whatever.

But Wilkins over Allen? Keep dreaming. After giving Jones a paragraph’s-worth of an explanation, here’s what PFF said about Wilkins: “Wilkins has been an excellent player for Miami in all facets, playing over 700 snaps this season.”

Cutting-edge analysis right there from the analytics truthers!

For the sake of argument let’s compare these players’ stats, shall we?

• Allen: 62 tackles (10 for loss), nine sacks, 30 QB hits, 67 pressures, 43 hurries, 32 run stops and an 84.9 player grade
• Wilkins: 89 tackles, (10 for loss), 4.5 sacks, 13 QB hits, 31 pressures, 18 hurries, 43 run stops and a 83.3 player grade.
• Jones: 27 tackles (eight for loss), nine sacks, 17 QB hits, 65 pressures, 47 hurries, 18 run stops and a 82.8 player grade.

In fairness to Wilkins and Jones, they both notched four and five pass breakups and a forced fumble apiece, respectively. HOWEVER, that’s legitimately the only area in which they out-performed Washington’s star. Across the board, Allen was more well-rounded than both of his running mates.

And yet, these are the results.

We’re not surprised by PFF’s failure to acknowledge Allen. It’s just further evidence that Washington players will always struggle to get recognized by the national media regardless of their production.

The real ones know, though, Allen. The real ones know.