Former Purdue star Ricardo Allen finding new motivation

The Falcons’ safety went from the practice squad as a rookie to a starter in Year 2, and did so at a new position. And now set to start his third season in Atlanta, with his wife Grace and three-month-old boy Luca James, it’d be understandable if Allen felt like he’d made it.

But he doesn’t.

“No. The way I am, I don’t think I’m ever settled,” Allen said Saturday, when he was helping out at Kawann Short’s camp in East Chicago. “I want to be best and that’s the difference. It’s so easy to strive for being mediocre or regular or average, but I want to be the best. I want to be the best at the position and do the best I can do.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be settled, even when I’m No. 1 and even when I do hit the top, I still want to stick to that spot. I think when you get comfortable and start to settle, that’s when you lose. And I don’t want to do that.”

But Allen does feel better about his future, and with good reason. The former Boilermaker made a huge leap in 2015, going from a relative Falcon outsider — he was a practice squad member only in his rookie season of 2014 — to a starter. And a good one too, having 68 tackles, three interceptions, five breakups and a sack last year, making him one of the league’s most improved players.

Perhaps Allen was confident enough to anticipate his own breakout, but few others would have predicted it. At this time last summer, Allen was only hoping to find a way onto Atlanta’s 53-man roster by any means possible.

He thought that’d be as a reserve cornerback, nickel back and gunner.

“Or whatever I can be on special teams,” Allen said. “Then, I get to camp and I’m skinnier, I’m smaller, and I’m moving quicker, and then they move me to free safety and I have to take the hits at safety all year.”

It was quite the learning process. Only 5-foot-9, 185-pounds then, Allen had to play beyond his physique and beyond his knowledge. He’d never before played a Cover 3, middle field, free safety, yet he took a majority of the snaps there for the Falcons and he gradually caught on.

“It probably happened in the middle of the season, that’s when I realized ‘OK, the game is slowed down and I know what I have to do,’” he said. “Before, I didn’t know what I was doing and was kind of learning on the go, but now I can sit back and judge myself and critique what I did last year and make the adjustments.”

Allen can better prepare himself this offseason. He says he’s gained about 10 pounds, up to 195, a better weight — although probably still not ideal — for the rigors of the position. And he feels good about the knowledge he’s gained.

“Now, I know I’m the free safety and what I do is get everybody lined up and I make tackles, I make plays on the ball, and I know that so I trained this whole offseason to do that,” he said.

Allen’s never lacked for motivation, whether it be in others telling him he was too small to play at an NCAA Power 5 or in the NFL. Or the Falcons putting him on the practice squad, despite him being a fifth-round pick in the ’14 draft.

Now, he can add family to his inspiration.

“You always think you have a purpose in this world, but you really don’t know until you have a baby boy,” he said. “You see your own kid and now I know that my job is to provide. I have to go out and do the best that I can do to be able to be a provider for me and my family.

“This makes you want to be the best of the best. You want your son to be able to grow up and I try to set a standard for him, and I want to set a very high standard.”

Membership Information: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?