He’s a 10-year veteran and a five-time Pro Bowler, but Jared Allen has never fully experienced free agency as an unrestricted FA, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes. That streak will come to an end this next week. According to agent Ken Harris, Allen will hit the open market “to see what 32 teams have to offer” (Twitter links via Rapoport).
Allen, 31, won’t see the kind of payday this year that he would have in his prime, but the star pass rusher remains productive and durable, recording 11.5 sacks last season for the Vikings. It was the sixth straight year in which he’d started all 16 regular season contests for the team, and the seventh consecutive season he’d notched 11 or more sacks.
Of course, just because Allen will test that market, it doesn’t mean that his days in Minnesota are over. Harris said last month that he had a “productive” meeting with the Vikings at the combine, and tells Rapoport that the club remains in the mix. As for other potential suitors, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com recently suggested the Raiders, with plenty of cap space and a need for an edge rusher, might be a good fit for the veteran defensive end.