Allen Retires, Ready for Hall of Fame Argument? 

At the age of 33, defensive end for the Carolina Panthers Jared Allen is ready to call it a career. After playing 11 years of his life in the NFL, Allen has contributed so much to the game, that he may even become a candidate for Canton’s Hall of Fame. 

Allen is ranked 9th all time in sacks, just one sack shy of surpassing John Randle and Richard Dent for 7th on the list. Those 136 sacks have been some of the hardest hits in the previous decade. 

Along with sacks, Allen’s total tackles moved up to 610, while he had 32 forced fumbles as well. During the era of the 2000’s, Allen made a name for himself as he earned his way into four first-team All Pro honors. 

Are there better defensive ends that have played the game? Of course, but let’s not take away the fact that Allen was a lock at a top 10 defensive end of all time according to the numbers. 

Even at 33 years old, I believe a lot of folks would believe that Allen is still better than possibly a third of the ends currently playing. 

Is Jared Allen a lock for Canton, or is this just a reach?