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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff WriterSep 25, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Rich Cimini is a staff writer who covers the New York Jets and the NFL at ESPN. Rich has covered the Jets for over 30 years, joining ESPN in 2010. Rich also hosts the Flight Deck podcast. He previously was a beat writer for the New York Daily News and is a graduate of Syracuse University. You can follow him via Twitter @RichCimini.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The Killer B’s — Breece Hall and Braelon Allen — weren’t formed on April 27, when the New York Jets added Allen to their Hall-led backfield by selecting him in the fourth round of the draft.
They also weren’t formed during OTA practices in late spring, when Allen grabbed everyone’s attention with his smooth route running and soft hands. He was impressive, sure, but running back is a contact-heavy position. You never truly know about a running back until he gets rocked a few times, and there’s no tackling in OTAs.
Then came training camp in July. And that’s when the Jets knew he was up to being the RB2.
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“I would say once we put the pads on, he separated himself,” coach Robert Saleh said of Allen. “It was clear that we had to get this dude on the field.”
It was in camp when Hall and Allen started calling themselves the “Killer B’s,” and now the entire NFL sees what they were trying to tell everyone with their audacious moniker.
They mean business. They break tackles. They burst through holes. They block. They’re one of the big reasons why the Jets are off to their first 2-1 start since 2015. It’s a swarm of B’s.
Hall, coming off a season in which he gained 1,585 scrimmage yards (fourth in the NFL), was considered the sure thing in the Jets’ backfield. Beyond him, though, there were unknowns. Instead of signing a veteran backup, they leaned on the draft, picking Allen out of Wisconsin and Isaiah Davis in the fifth round out of South Dakota State.
When they started hitting in camp, Allen began throwing his weight around. The 20-year-old is 6-foot-1, 235 pounds. Just like that, Hall had his sidekick.
“It was a whole new level of football,” Saleh said of the rookie’s camp performance. “So he’s earned this, and we’ll continue to build it.”
Of the team’s nine offensive touchdowns, Hall (three) and Allen (two) have combined for more than half of them, taking pressure off quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the passing game. Hall, who brings the speed element (he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds at the 2022 scouting combine), has rushed for 170 yards. Allen has 96 yards on only 19 carries, a gaudy 5.1 average.
It’s the old thunder-and-lightning scenario.
New York Jets running back Breece Hall, left, talks to running back Braelon Allen. The two call themselves the Killer Bs. John Jones/USA TODAY Sports
“With my running style, I feel like I have a little bit of everything,” Hall said. “I have the finesse and the power to break it long. For him, he comes in and he’s just wearing the defense down, wearing them down, wearing them down. … So it’s cool to just know that when I come out of the game, I know he’s going to produce when he comes in.”
Some running backs don’t play up to their size; they get knocked off their feet because they lack balance or toughness or both. Allen isn’t one of those backs. He’s averaging 2.63 yards after contact per rush, which ranks fourth in the league, according to ESPN Research.
His speed is deceptive, as he reached nearly 19 mph on his 20-yard touchdown run against the Tennessee Titans in Week 2, according to Next Gen Stats. Tight end Tyler Conklin called it a “Derrick Henry-ish” rumble by Allen, who exploded past a would-be tackler at the point of attack and outran safety Amani Hooker to capture the edge for a clear sideline to the end zone.
“I wouldn’t put a label [on my style],” Allen said during training camp. “Most people would say ‘power back,’ but I think I’ve shown a good amount of ability to catch the ball and get around the edge. But I’m kind of the outlier in the way of size, so I know what I’m here to do, and that’s play smashmouth football.”
Despite stellar production at Wisconsin, Allen was the next-to-last pick of the fourth round. Many believe he fell because after rushing for more than 1,200 yards in each of his first two seasons, his production slipped to 984 yards in his final year.
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When the Jets evaluated him, they saw a sturdy downhill runner who wasn’t suited to Wisconsin’s new spread offense, installed in 2023 by new coach Luke Fickell. The Jets felt his 2021 and 2022 performances, in a pro-style offense, were a better indication of his NFL potential.
Allen said he turned pro at the age of 20 (the youngest player in the draft), in part, because he wanted to capitalize on an NFL market that favors younger running backs. Because he was able to graduate high school early, he got an early start at Wisconsin. Jets center Joe Tippmann, a former Badger, recalled his earliest memory of Allen.
“I remember him showing up, he was 17 years old,” Tippmann said. “He was someone who was supposed to be going into his senior year and then reclassified. Nobody knew what that meant. So him walking in there, we’re like, ‘All right, whatever. This guy thinks he can just skip his senior year of football.’ First practice, we step out there and I think he ran over three or four dudes and immediately everything switched.”
Allen provides something the Jets didn’t have last season — a dynamic back to spell Hall. They paid more than $6 million last year to fading star Dalvin Cook, but he wound up being released before the season was over.
Once again, the offense runs through Hall, who already has 60 touches (rushes and receptions) to Allen’s 25. Rodgers likes to call Hall a legitimate three-down back, one of the highest compliments for a running back. But the “Killer B’s” have been on the field together for a handful of snaps, including one that resulted in a touchdown pass to Allen.
The rushing attack still isn’t operating at peak efficiency — their 100.7 yards per game ranks 21st — but the formula is in place: A lot of Hall speed, mixed with some Allen power.
“Breece is out there, making those cuts, making people miss, and then Braelon comes in and he runs right over ’em,” Tippmann said. “I think it opens it up for [Allen], and then it opens it up for Breece to be able to make those plays further downfield because those safeties that are stepping up, they’re going to be scared to hit.”
