The moment doubled as a reintroduction and a reminder. Here was Braelon Allen, just two seasons ago the youngest player in the entire league, bursting through the right side of the line of scrimmage for a 31-yard touchdown run in a Jets preseason game earlier this month. Here was Allen, now 22, back in a game for the first time since September 2025 — after missing the final 13 games last season with a sprained MCL.
Here was Allen, long seen as the complementary piece for a one-two Jets punch at running back alongside Breece Hall, flashing why he earned that label in the first place by finding space and ensuring the Buccaneers defenders couldn’t contain him. When one of his kids told him about the touchdown run, Devon Spalding — Allen’s running backs coach at Wisconsin in 2023 — found it, watched it and was fired up. If Allen needed a jolt to reignite his place in the NFL lexicon, that captured it.
“He’s back,” Spalding, now the running backs coach at Michigan State, told The Post.
Back could mean a handful of different scenarios for Allen. In the short term, it could mean a healthy Allen, a healthy Hall and eventually a healthy Isaiah Davis giving the Jets a powerful rushing attack that blends different styles. It could mean complementing Geno Smith’s passing and thriving behind an offensive line returning four starters. In the long term, it could mean the breakout Allen needs to leverage himself as someone capable of more responsibility with what Al Johnson, another former Wisconsin running backs coach, described as a blend of size and speed — proving, Allen said earlier this summer, that he can be a “workhorse back.”
