Without any unforeseen circumstance over the next week, it appears that former Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen is set to begin his eighth season in the NFL, which will make him the second-longest tenured signal-caller the Razorbacks have ever had in the professional ranks.
Only Joe Ferguson’s 17-year career, which spanned four franchises from 1973-90, would top Allen’s. The late Ryan Mallett spent seven seasons in the NFL before retiring in 2017.
Allen, now 30, seems to have secured San Francisco’s third-team quarterbacking duties after the 49ers traded former first-round pick Trey Lance to Dallas last week. Allen would back up Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold.
The 6-foot-2, 209-pound Fayetteville High School alum, has spent his entire NFL career predominantly in a back-up role, but it has still allowed him to earn more than $4 million and a trip to Super Bowl LVI with Cincinnati.
After being drafted by Jacksonville in the sixth round — 201st overall — in the 2016 NFL Draft, he spend his first three seasons with the Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams, without playing in a game. After signing with the Broncos in 2019, he got his first three starts. He spent the past three season’s as Joe Burrow’s back-up in Cincinnati, where he got six more starts while Burrow was injured.
Allen has a 2-7 career record as a starter, while throwing for 1,611 yards and 10 touchdowns. In the final regular-season game of 2020, he passed for 371 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-31 victory over Houston. When the Bengals went to the Super Bowl in February of 2022, Allen also extended the Razorbacks’ streak of 14 consecutive years with a representative in the season’s big finale. That streak ended this past February.
Coming out of high school, Allen was rated as the No. 5 pro-style quarterback in the nation, by Rivals. Following a slow start to his freshman season at Arkansas, he ended up being a major component in turning around the dismal Razorback program, leading the Hogs to back-to-back bowl wins his final two seasons. It was the first time in history that the program had won bowls in consecutive seasons. KJ Jefferson is looking to become the first quarterback to win three straight bowl games this season.
In 38 collegiate starts, Allen ended his career with 7,463 yards passing, which ranks third in program history, while also finishing second in career pass completions (583), second in attempts (1,016) and third in completion percentage (57.4).
Ferguson was a third-round pick — 51st overall — by Buffalo in the 1973 Draft, and immediately started every game for the Bills over the next 11 seasons. He threw for 29,817 yards and 196 touchdowns as a pro, although the most famous NFL play he was a part of occurred on Dec. 16, 1973, when he handed the ball off to OJ Simpson, who proceeded to become the first player to ever eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a single (then 14 games) season.