Devon Allen (born December 12, 1994) is an American
track and field athlete, specializing in the
110-meter hurdles, and a professional football
wide receiver who is a free agent. He played wide receiver for the
University of Oregon football team from 2014 to 2016.[1] In the 110-meter hurdles, Allen is a three-time U.S. national champion (
2014,
2016, and
2018) and a two-time Olympian, reaching the finals in both the
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the
2020 Tokyo Olympics. His personal best of 12.84 seconds, set in 2022, ranks as the third-fastest time in history.[2] In his final meet of 2021, Allen clocked 12.99 seconds and became the 13th American hurdler to ever break the 13-second barrier in this event.[3][4] In April 2022, the Eagles signed Allen as a wide receiver.[5]
On July 17, 2022, Allen was disqualified at the 2022 World Athletic Championships in
Eugene,
Oregon, due to a controversial false start. The sensors in the starting blocks measured his reaction time from the moment the gun went off at 0.099 seconds, which is 0.001 seconds faster than the legally allowed reaction time of 0.100 seconds.[6][7]
Early years
At an early age, Devon Allen began running track with the Arizona Rising Suns track club. He worked very hard at both track and football in his younger years, however, his coaches insisted he keep on pursuing his track career despite having a strong interest in football. His hard work and dedication in track and field accelerated him to have successful high school years at Brophy Prep.[citation needed]
Coming out of high school as a four-star recruit, Allen committed to the
University of Oregon and played on their football team for three years as a wide receiver, with his first season as the most productive one. After coming out of college, however, he focused his athletics on hurdling and track-and-field rather than football.
After years of competing in the US Nationals and the Olympics, Allen chose to participate in the football
pro day held for players at the University of Oregon during the 2022 preseason. Allen caught the attention of NFL scouts when he ran an unofficial 4.35-second 40-yard dash. He impressed the
Philadelphia Eagles enough to merit a visit on April 7 to their training facility, the NovaCare Complex.
On April 8, 2022, the day after being brought to their training facility, Allen signed a standard three-year undrafted rookie deal with the Eagles.[8] He was waived on August 30, 2022 and signed to the
practice squad the next day.[9][10][11][12] On February 15, 2023, Allen signed a reserve/future contract with the Eagles.[13]
On August 29, 2023, Allen was waived by the Eagles and re-signed to the practice squad.[14][15] On September 25, Allen was promoted from the practice squad to make his NFL debut in Philadelphia's Week 3 contest against the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers.[16] He was not signed to a reserve/future contract after the season and thus became a free agent when his practice squad contract expired.[17]