Keenan Allen, one of the greatest receivers in Chargers history, just signed a deal with the Indianapolis Colts. So I figured it’s a good time to share this story, originally published on the now-defunct site The Messenger, back on November 17, 2023. As Allen, who currently has the 13th-most career receptions in NFL history, had just crossed the rare 10,000-yard milestone, I thought it was a cool idea to examine his career by watching three plays where he crossed the 1,000-, 5,000-, and 10,000-yard thresholds.
I posted up with Allen in front of his stall at the Hoag Performance Center in Costa Mesa, California, while he snacked on some popcorn while he relived the trio of catches — it’s easily one of my favorite interviews that I’ve conducted throughout my career. Thanks to the great Gary Gramling for allowing me to pursue this idea and for editing my piece.
A GROUP OF offensive linemen are planning their joint Thanksgiving dinner spread when Keenan Allen saunters by. Beard poking out from the black hoodie caped over his head — a powder-blue Chargers beanie snuggled on top of the hoodie — the veteran receiver snacks on lighter fare, a bag of Skinny Pop, as he approaches his stall in the Chargers locker room.
Allen’s pre-practice get-up offers only a small window into his self-described fun and approachable personality. He fields questions from a reporter sizing up the Lions before their Week 10 matchup, matter-of-factly responding between popcorn bites.
“They’re good,” Allen says of Detroit, sticking another piece of popcorn in his mouth before slyly deadpanning, “We’ll see what happens in the secondary now.” (What happened: Allen tallied 11 catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns, albeit in a 41–38 loss.)
Allen is one of the NFL’s most deceptive route runners, but when it comes to choosing words he’s as honest as you can get. He’s always spoken his mind, for better or worse, whether that’s over his ranking on the NFL’s annual Top 100 list, former players’ rapping abilities, or his head coach’s playcalling. His unapologetic, pointed sincerity and understated-yet-unmistakable intensity are part of what’s defined him over the course of his NFL career, now in its 11th season.
Earlier this month, Allen crossed the 10,000-yard mark for his career, an accomplishment that signifies how one of the NFL’s most clutch receivers has sustained high-level play for more than a decade. The Messenger watched three milestone catches with the longtime Chargers receiver to tell the tale of his career.
1,000 Yards
December 29, 2013 | Kansas City Chiefs at San Diego Chargers
Third-and-2, 5:42 Q4 | From Philip Rivers for 38 yards to the KC 8
“Absolutely!” Allen exclaims when asked if he remembers the play. “Last game of the season.”
Allen broke the Chargers’ rookie record by tallying 1,046 yards in 2013, making a crucial 38-yard catch on a late-game drive that helped send a must-win game against the Chiefs, in San Diego, into overtime. The Chargers won, then reached the second round of the AFC playoffs as a wild-card team.
That triumphant conclusion of Allen’s rookie campaign overshadowed a tumultuous start. Once considered the country’s top defensive back recruit (he even verbally committed to Nick Saban and Alabama), Allen followed family and friends to play at Cal-Berkeley, where he immediately emerged as one of the nation’s best receivers. After three seasons, he declared for the draft as a likely first-round pick, but a torn PCL suffered midway through his junior year spoiled his pre-draft process. Still recovering, he clocked a sluggish 4.71 40-yard dash at the Combine.
Seven receivers were drafted before Allen, who slipped to the Chargers in the third round. Through training camp and preseason he rode the bench, buried on the depth chart for the first time in his athletic career. That led Allen to consider retiring from football to finish his degree or enter music production. A phone call from his mother encouraged him to not quit on the NFL.
“Knowing I wasn’t gonna play, I was like, I ain’t been in that position before,” Allen says now. “I’m not about to watch knowing that I’m better than the other guys. I’m not gonna watch. So I was [thinking about] taking my talents elsewhere and go do something else. That’s where I was at.”
Allen didn’t log a single snap in the Chargers’ 2013 opener. But in Week 2 against the Eagles, starter Malcom Floyd injured his neck. Allen stepped in, converting a third-and-8 on his first-ever NFL catch by coolly rolling over the middle for an 18-yard gain.
Drake’s “Another Late Night” thumps over the locker room speaker as Allen reflects on seizing his chance. “I just never looked back,” he says.
Allen crossed the 100-yard mark five times and recorded at least five catches in seven games during his rookie season. He finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting behind Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy. Allen racked up six catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the Chargers’ divisional-round loss to the Broncos, becoming just the second rookie in NFL history to tally 100 yards and two TDs in a single playoff game.
Allen nods as he considers how his rookie year started, and recognizes the significance of crossing the 1,000-yard mark anyway. “But,” he says, “at the same time, it was like, ‘Yeah, I should’a been on this.’ Y’know what I’m saying?”
5,000 Yards
December 2, 2018 | Los Angeles Chargers at Pittsburgh Steelers
Third-and-4, 1:13 Q4 | From Philip Rivers for 12 yards to the PIT 22
As he watches Philip Rivers break the huddle, Allen unleashes a huge grin while chewing another piece of popcorn. Rivers had given Allen simple orders before the play: Take as much time as you need on this one.
“I was like, ‘Bet,’” Allen says. “Because we had already run [that play] one time and we got a completion on it, but it was a little faster. That time, he was like, ‘You work ‘em. You just take as much time as you need.’”
Allen obliged, shuffling his feet before dusting then-Steelers linebacker L.J. Fort with a choice route and finding a soft spot in the Pittsburgh secondary for a 12-yard catch.
“I’m about to kill 51!” Allen laughs as he watches himself line up. He utters a series of ad-libs as he slithers by Fort. “Ah, ah, ah!”
By this point in Allen’s career, he’d established himself as one of the NFL’s best receivers and arguably the league’s craftiest route runner. It’s obvious he takes immense pleasure from snatching the souls of defenders and embarrassing them — it’s damn near predatory. Allen swears he’s been breaking opponents’ ankles “since I was 7 years old.” That has continued, even against the NFL’s best cover men.
But it once was unclear if Allen could consistently show off his route-running artistry or if he’d just be a one-hit wonder. After his outstanding rookie year, Allen suffered three major injuries across three straight seasons. In 2014, he broke his right collarbone against the Broncos in Week 15, sidelining him as the Chargers’ playoff hopes faded away. (That same shoulder still has a large bump from an AC joint sprain he suffered in 2013.) In 2015, Allen lacerated his kidney in Week 8 and missed the rest of the year. “You couldn’t move. You couldn’t do nothin’,” he recalls. “You’re just on bed rest. That s--- was lame.” In 2016, he tore his right ACL during the Chargers’ season-opener. “The ACL [injury] was pretty lame, too,” he explains. “But obviously you can go to rehab and work out.”
Allen missed 25 total games across those three seasons. He says he never doubted whether he could come back and perform at a high level, but admits, as a competitor, it was excruciating not being able to contribute. Even today, the best way to get other Chargers receivers going, he tells reporters, is to make sure he’s on the field.
“Every time you gotta watch a game, it don’t matter if you gotta watch one game, it’s gonna be tough,” Allen says. “Just because you’re so used to being out there. You wanna be out there. Then you gotta watch somebody else do it, it’s not fun.”
In 2017, Allen’s fifth season, he finally stayed on the field long enough to enter the NFL’s upper echelon of playmakers. He played all 16 games for the first time and led the Chargers with a then-franchise record 102 catches, 1,393 yards and six TDs, while claiming the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award and earning his first Pro Bowl nod. In 2018, he followed it up by appearing in all 16 games again and snagging 97 catches for 1,196 yards and six scores to go with another Pro Bowl.
Allen says it took years for him to build up consistency and become a nuanced receiver. Playing with Rivers helped him understand the game at a deeper level. The why of things became clearer — from playcalls, to route combinations, to protections.
“The game is not even the same to me,” Allen says now. “I wish I didn’t know it how I know it now, because I don’t even run routes the same. When I was a rookie, every route, I’m trying to get open. It don’t matter [the play] because I don’t know what read I am, I’m just trying to run and get open. Now, it’s like, ‘I’m not getting the ball, I’m chillin’.’ But the [defensive back] don’t know that, so you…” Allen pauses and invitingly gestures, before concluding, “…give him the win on this play.”
As a rookie, Allen was “a robot.” He’d watch veterans Antonio Gates and Eddie Royal run polished routes with their own subtle tweaks. That made Allen excited about the possibilities of what he could do.
“I’m like, ‘Oh s---, I could really get crazy on some of these [routes]!’” Allen recalls. “But you really gotta learn the offense. You gotta know what’s going on, you gotta know the timing with the quarterback, before you can do all that. The faster you can do all that, that’s when you can really get into your bag. I would probably say by [my] third year, fourth year… Party time.”
10,000 Yards
November 6, 2023 | Los Angeles Chargers at New York Jets
Third-and-4, 11:47 Q4 | From Justin Herbert for 38 yards to the NYJ 47
Allen swears he lost the ball in MetLife Stadium’s bright lights during the catch that crossed the 10,000-yard mark. The 31-year-old spun, contorted his body and stuck his left arm up to pull the ball in as he fell on his backside.
As Allen rolled into the Jets sideline and popped up, he says, “I was like, ‘Yeeeeeeah! That’s how you do it!’” Then he yelled at the Jets crowd, “I do this s---! This is what I do!”
Allen says the play was particularly sweet because before the game he’d overheard Jets situational football/game management coordinator Dan Shamash, who’d worked with the Chargers from 2017 to ’21, explaining to New York’s receivers they needed to get to their back on certain catches.
He didn’t even know that play was the one that put him over the 10,000-yard mark. “I just knew it was on third down,” he says, to which I tell him that, fittingly, all three of the milestone catches we watched were third-down conversions. Allen has twice led the NFL in third-down receptions (2017, ’20). Mid-popcorn bite, he looks at me, looks back at the phone screen as a replay rolled, and responds, “Pass me the rock, bruh!” followed by more ad-libs tracking over his route running. “Uh! Uh!”
Despite the hootin’ and hollering at watching him cook defenders, Allen says none of what he’s accomplished blows his mind, even though he understands the significance of what he’s made out of his career. Only a small percentage of people have recorded 10,000 career receiving yards. “Fifty four,” Allen clarifies. As for what it means that Keenan Allen is one of those 54? “That he takes his business seriously,” Allen says. “That he stands on business, y’know what I’m saying? That he show up and obviously put the work in, because that’s how you’re able to do it.”
Allen’s teammates can attest to his work ethic. Khalil Mack, once Allen’s rival with the Raiders, finds it impressive how committed he is. “He a fun guy, man. He like to enjoy himself on the field,” Mack says. “But you turn on the practice tape and he’s workin’ hard. He’s workin’ just as hard as these rookies and running as fast as these young guys.”
The Chargers young receiver room is reverent of Allen. Rookie first-rounder Quentin Johnston says he’s gravitated to Allen because of his professionalism, “and I’m just bouncing ideas off of him all the time,” Johnston says.
Allen is the only receiver on the Chargers’ active roster over 30 years old, but you wouldn’t know it watching his head bob to Young Nudy’s “4L Gang S---.” “I don’t feel like a vet,” he says. “I obviously am, because I’m around a bunch of young guys. But I don’t feel like how Gates and them boys felt.” Allen might not feel that way, but the younger wideouts still think Allen offers sage-like advice — with the beard to match.
Practice squad receiver Keelan Doss, whose locker is stationed next to Allen’s, says Allen once told him Great players might have a bad play, but they don’t really have a bad practice. “I took that part, incorporate that in my game, and just build on it,” Doss says.
“He’s a really detailed guy,” fifth-year wideout Jalen Guyton adds. “For me, that says a lot in an industry where sometimes you have more experience than your boss, or you have more experience than the person who’s telling you to do it, to just humble yourself and keep it pushin’, stay disciplined, do what you’re told. Just be a good teammate, honestly. He’s a great teammate in spite of all the success he’s had.”
During a 2017 interview, Allen said that he learned how to appreciate the game and the process of becoming great. That required a mindset shift, one that’s grateful even when you’re tired and waking up for a 6:30 a.m. meeting to watch film of the same plays they’ve already gone over. “You gotta love it,” he said. And to love football, you had to “be good at it.” In Year 11, he still is. He leads the league in receptions (73) and is fourth in receiving yards (895). He’s stayed healthy and started every game.
“I think it’s more routine than love at this point,” Allen says now. “Obviously you still love the game, to play the game and have fun, but it’s a routine. I was telling the guys, I could just wake up and go play and be good. As long as I’m in shape and stuff like that, I can probably just wake up and go play.”
Allen snickers. He’s kidding, sort of. After all, he knows the game can’t be cheated. He’s experienced enough through a decade-plus in the NFL to understand what’s required on a daily basis to play this well for this long. He understands how health is cherished. He understands the meaning behind every little detail, of what coaches say and what he’s assigned. He distills this wealth of knowledge in a casual manner that only someone with 10,000 career receiving yards can.
“Nah, the game is just the game now,” Allen says, confidently. “I know it.”