{"id":284487,"date":"2026-05-22T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=284487"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:21:05","slug":"colts-rookie-lb-cj-allen-making-waves-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/05\/22\/colts-rookie-lb-cj-allen-making-waves-already\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts Rookie LB CJ Allen Making Waves Already"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts held their rookie minicamp from May 8th to 9th, where they got a chance to check out their draft picks and undrafted free agents. A name to look for was linebacker C.J. Allen, <\/a>who was drafted by the Colts in the second round, 53rd overall, of the 2026 NFL Draft. Although Allen hasn’t been there long, he’s been impressing the coaching staff so far.<\/p>\n

Colts’ Coaches On C.J. Allen<\/h2>\n

It was reported by Abby Halpin of the official team site<\/a> that Colts linebacker coach James Bettcher<\/a> spoke on Allen’s progress this week and what stood out to them when scouting Allen in the pre-draft process, saying, “You heard everyone that watched him on tape say that he’s the first guy to communicate,” Bettcher said. “He’s the first guy making adjustments, whether it’s a coverage check or slide in the front.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Linebackers need to have good communication on defense. Oftentimes, they are the ones making the checks and calls and setting the defense. Having a cerebral linebacker can work wonders for a defense and its scheme. Bettcher harped on how Allen on the field is too similar to him off, “It’s high intelligence questions,” Bettcher said. “The foundation of his play is his football intelligence and his work ethic.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bettcher continued to speak on Allen’s character, stating, “The first thing (people at Georgia) would rave about is the character of the man and the way he works. One of the core values we have in our culture is the word ‘relentless,’ and CJ epitomizes that.”<\/span><\/p>\n

CJ Allen Breakdown<\/h2>\n

As a prospect, Allen was among the top linebackers in the 2026 class. ESPN’S Mel Kiper Jr. had him ranked as the 28th best prospect. While at Georgia, Allen accumulated 205 tackles, 4.1 sacks, 13.5 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. After a great 2025 campaign in his last year for the Bulldogs, Allen earned First Team All-American and First Team All-SEC honors.<\/p>\n

Allen was an integral part of the Bulldogs’ 2025 season, where they concluded the season 12-2, going to the College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl, losing to Mississippi 39-34. Allen solidified himself as one of the best linebackers in college football last year, and now he has the chance to do so in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Allen is a projected starter as he’s getting acclimated to the league. The Colts begin their OTA’s on May 26th, and Allen’s progress could be made more evident to the rest of the coaching staff as the offseason moves along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts held their rookie minicamp from May 8th-9th, where they got a chance to check out their draft picks and undrafted free agents. Although C.J. Allen hasn’t been there long, he’s been impressing the coaching staff so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5815,"featured_media":280362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6431],"tags":[33533,34438],"class_list":["post-284487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-nfl-teams","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-c-j-allen"],"modified_by":"Sue Levine","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284487"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284511,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284487\/revisions\/284511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}