Jonathan Allen has a goal that he wants to meet with Daron Payne during the 2023 NFL season, but it wasn’t revealed during a press conference or a TV interview.
Allen shared his goal with Payne during the Washington Commanders’ season-opening game against the Arizona Cardinals last week.
Allen and Payne were teammates at Alabama for two seasons and are in their sixth season of playing together for Washington, where each was a Pro Bowl defensive tackle last season.
During the Commanders’ 20-16 victory over Arizona, Allen told Payne: “First duo to get 10 sacks each. That’s the goal.”
Toward that goal of becoming the first defensive-tackle teammates to reach double-digits in sacks in the same season, Allen recorded one against the Cardinals.
Allen had 7.5 sacks in 2022, and his career high is nine in 2021.
Payne reached 11.5 sacks in 2022 after recording 14.5 in the first four seasons of his NFL career.
The interaction with Payne was recorded when Allen wore a microphone during Washington’s game against Arizona. And Allen had plenty to say as one of the Commanders’ captains for the 2023 campaign.
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At Alabama, Allen was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year for the 2016 season. In his third all-conference campaign, Allen also earned the Bednarik Award, Nagurski Trophy and Lombardi Award and was a unanimous All-American selection. The Bednarik and Nagurski annually go to the nation’s best defensive player, and the Lombardi was presented annually to the nation’s top lineman or linebacker.
Allen has been with Washington since being selected with the 17th choice in the 2017 NFL Draft.
The Commanders are playing the Denver Broncos at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.