COSTA MESA — It’s bound to happen sooner or later. Keenan Allen will catch a pass from Justin Herbert and his career receiving yardage will top 10,000. It might happen Monday night when the Chargers play the New York Jets. Or it might happen when they face the Detroit Lions on Nov. 12.
But it seems like a mortal lock that it’s going to happen in the not-too-distant future. Allen has 850 receptions for 9,930 yards and 56 touchdowns over his 11-year NFL career, all with the San Diego and Los Angeles Chargers. They are marks of longevity and of distinction, to be sure.
Allen, 31, has played on great teams, average ones and subpar ones during his career. He has made highlight-reel catches seem routine too many times to count. The five-time Pro Bowl selection has lined up out wide, in the slot, been sent in motion and even thrown a touchdown pass himself, a 49-yard strike to wide receiver Mike Williams during the Chargers’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3.
This season, through seven games, Allen has 54 receptions for 643 yards, an average of 11.9 yards per catch. He has four touchdown receptions and has four games of 70 yards or more, the figure he needs to reach 10,000 career yards. He set a franchise record with 18 catches in Week 3.
“I think just being two different football players,” Allen said of a career that dates to the Chargers drafting him in the third round in 2013 from Cal. “I was a rookie, didn’t know the game that much, just was running around trying to be in the right spot for Phil.”
Phil would be Philip Rivers, the Chargers’ quarterback from 2002 to ’19.
“Right now, I kind of know the offense,” Allen said. “I know what’s going on. I know what the defense is doing. You just understand the game a little more. I think I’ve always been a guy who’s been kind of productive, counted on, on the teams I’ve always played on, so I feel like once I can’t be that guy I’ll shut it down.”
There will come a time, as it does for all athletes, when Allen can’t do it.
That day isn’t today, though.
“That’s my guy,” Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. said. “He’s just a baller. He works harder, he practices harder than any guy that you know. For him to do what he’s been able to do, nothing but love for him, nothing but respect. He’s going to go down as one of the greats. He’s going to get that gold jacket one day, for sure.”
James referred to the gold jackets given to players who enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. James hasn’t just admired Allen’s play from the Chargers’ sidelines. James, too, has been victimized by Allen’s precisely run pass routes, his ability to torch opposing defenders and his remarkable hands.
Even just practicing against Allen can be a humbling experience.
“He’s definitely one of the guys, starting early in my career that I saw who had a lot of success and I just wanted to duplicate that with Pro Bowl and All-Pro (selections),” James said. “He was a great guy to lean on, especially when I was going through adversity early in my career. He helped me out along the way.”
Allen is merely paying it forward. He said he learned from playing alongside players such as tight end Antonio Gates, the Chargers’ all-time leader in receptions with 955, receiving yardage with 11,841 and receiving touchdowns with 116. Allen is second with 850 catches and 9.930 yards and fourth with 56 touchdowns.
It’s not just teammates who pick Allen’s brain. It’s coaches, too.
Allen also has been a sounding board for Chargers coach Brandon Staley.
“They are that deepest level of football (conversations), in terms of attacking a coverage, attacking a certain defender, a certain type of defense,” Staley said. “How you can predict the coverage that you’re in based on your location, a couple of things that you can look at because he can see it like a coach.
“He’s seen all the looks.”
No doubt, Allen will see them all again Monday against the Jets’ defense, when he tries to hit a milestone only one other player in a Chargers uniform has reached. If he doesn’t get it against New York on Monday Night Football, it’s almost certain to come another day or night this season.
It will be a game to remember, but there’s one more mark he’d like to reach.
“Catch Antonio Gates for receptions,” he said.
Why?
“Just because he’s Antonio Gates,” he said, smiling.
The best recognizing the best.
