Pierre Allen Scouting Report

Even during his redshirt year in 2006, Pierre Allen was making big strides. Allen came to Lincoln a little undersized for a defensive end, but he added 40 pounds of mostly muscle in a year. He was ready to make an impact as a redshirt freshman, but the Nebraska defense had a few too many players in front of him on the depth chart. By the end of the year Allen was making a small impact and 15 of his 16 tackles came in the last six games of the season.

As a sophomore Allen started the year on the bench, but was forced into a starting role when starter Barry Turner went out with a broken leg. That made Allen start the final 11 games of the season and he helped propel what was a pretty bad Nebraska defense a year ago into a solid unit. In the end, Allen tallied an impressive 52 tackles, 10.0 tackles-for-loss and 5.0 sacks during the 2008 campaign. In 2009 Allen stepped right back into his starting role and totaled 51 tackles, 12.0 tackles-for-loss, 5.0 sacks and eight quarterback hurries despite battling nagging injuries for most of the season.

Allen finished up the regular season during his senior campaign with similar numbers and his consistency has been a quite remarkable. After gaining some national attention by making the All-Big 12 First Team, Allen's stocking is slowly moving up. He may not be the quickest or strongest end in this class, but Allen is an experienced end who has proven that he can make plays.

3/25 Update: Allen was unable to participate in the drills at the NFL combine due to a strained calf muscle. It was unlikely that he would wow anybody at the combine where everybody would get an opportunity to see him. Instead, Allen performed at Nebraska's pro day. He is still largely considered a mid-round prospect, but his experience and consistency can be matched by few other ends in this class and that should move Allen into the third round.