He's our 6-3, 215 lbs athletic CB, drafted 5th last year. He's 24 years old, with a full year of practice under his belt, I'm hoping he blossoms this season. He didn't really see the field last year, but he's been covering the Steelers WRs in practice which had to be good for him. What role do you guys see for Big Brian Allen?

Heir apparent to Haden. I think he’ll get on the field this year in place of Willie Gay in the dime.

Haden has probably been a good influence on all our young DBs including Allen.

I would think with his size and speed he is a boundary corner. Who is moving inside when he comes in as the dime corner?

Allen has one job to do this year - cover Gronk.

I meant he'd be perfect as the dime LB position Gay plays.

Allen will do a damned fine job warming the bench. His length will increase the temperature of the wood from the very top of the backrest, all the way down through the end of the leg rest.

i was thinking Sutton would be getting dime snaps - no?

I hope and pray Cam Sutton wins that starting CB job from Artie Burns... unless, of course, Artie gets his head out of his backside. Or maybe that Sutton beats out Sean Davis for a safety spot.

I do think he is strictly a CB, former WR turned CB, still learning how to tackle honestly. I don't see him being able to play safety and play well against the run. He also does turn 25 years old in October, so the Steelers can and do take chances on older players. I am hoping he bucks the trend and really develops because most of the time when we draft older players they don't turn out very well.

He played safety at Utah one year before he took over as a starting CB. I heard that, and then I dug up tape of the Utah spring game where he did, in fact, play safety... and made three terrific plays, including blasting some receiver on a click and close from the slot.
I think he's a hitter who tackled pretty well at Utah, honestly. I think there is an assumption he can't tackle because he was a former WR but I don't see it.

Could be you can't teach an old dog new tricks but I'm excited to see his progress from year one to two.

A spring game? You are really reaching there B2B. I look at last season where they slowly eased him into the special teams role because they were hesitant about his tackling. It is one thing to tackle a WR but to come up and fill the alley? To come up and break down and shed a blocker and tackle a 230 pound RB with a full head of steam? Have you seen Allen do that? A safety tackling cleanly and with authority in those circumstances is quite another story.

On 3rd down and a situation where you're playing dime... I think it's less of an issue.

I'm not saying a spring game alone is enough to prepare the guy for being an NFL safety... but he has more experience being a DB than he did being a WR. I think he showed good tackling, and IIRC, it was one of the things either Carnell or KC said about Allen at the time he was drafted-- they talked about his tackling and willingness being a reason they drafted him.

It was frustrating for me in how they handled Allen last season. He played in 10 games and only had 18% of the special teams snaps.

I was hoping he would be active every game and that he would be used on all of the special teams units. I wanted him to really get acclimated to the speed, physicality of the game, even if it was only on special teams. Special teams can really be a way for a young player, or raw player to develop confidence, technique, etc. And yet they were almost spoon feeding him last season, it was just odd to me. One of the freak athletes on the team and they barely used him on special teams.

Special teams is important. But being an NFL CB is a very specialized skill set. And Allen has the physical tools. But what he needed last year was practice reps, reps, and more reps. And I think he did get a lot of practice reps against our formidable WRs. So whether or not he can turn practice reps into game performance, I guess we will find out.

Man, I wish they would see what he can do at FS. Maybe it's just that his IQ just isn't near close enough yet to sniff a chance, even at depth.

personally, FS would be my 4th choice of the 6 DB positions (Big CB, quicks CB, slot, SS, FS, Dime backer) I think he's a boundary CB vs big WRs who can run or a SS. The first requires less learning curve for him but there's a great player ahead of him.

I'll be surprised if this fucker takes one defensive snap over the next two years.

Always a possibility.

It going to be fun to see how Allen grows and what role he will have.

Other than experience and FB IQ, I see him as a great fit for FS. He's basically Harrison Smith's identical twin brother, size and athletic wise. And, we all know what he's done as a FS, probably one of the top in the league.

I too like the idea of Allen at FS. Is it even in the Steelers plans? No one but they know for sure. Where ever the rumor of Sutton being moved to Safety started, likely has legs IMHO.