Yes, this is the same Dakota Allen that featured as a prominent character on Neftlix’s documentary Last Chance U. Since re-enrolling at Texas Tech, he’s been a dynamic force for the Red Raider defense.
The unfortunate injury to Ryan Shazier leaves the Steelers with a massive hole at linebacker. They need to find a player who can patrol the middle against both the run and pass. Bringing Allen into the fold would give Mike Tomlin a linebacker who can cover running backs and tight ends in space.
The knock against Allen is that he doesn’t have the prototypical size to play middle linebacker. The way the game is headed, that sort of size is going to be less and less important in the future. Anyone playing at the second level against the best NFL offenses will need to be able to function in pass coverage. That’s arguably the best part of Allen’s game.
This might be a little too high for the Steelers to draft an inside linebacker, but Allen is too perfect of a fit in their system to ignore. It’s possible Pittsburgh will try to wait and pick him up in round two, but drafting a probable starter in round one is always a good move.