Allen counsels Boyd on NFL choice

Dwayne Allen holds up one more year for his friend Tajh Boyd at the press conference on Tuesday.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Jan 09 23:58:18 GMT-04:00 2013

CLEMSON – Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd Tajh Boyd
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View Full Profile and even Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick.

Boyd felt that Allen could give him the kind of insight that no one else could give – Allen decided one year ago that he would leave after his junior season and enter the draft, where he was selected by the Indianapolis Colts.

Allen earned a spot on the NFL’s All-Rookie team while playing with rookie quarterback Andrew Luck and helped lead the Colts to the playoffs, but said he was able to watch Boyd’s progress this season.

“He made a lot of gains in the game,” Allen said. “He decided he wanted some more work on his game and that’s one of the main reasons why he decided to come back. He is one year from playing on the same level as those guys – Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. The experience that he [Luck] gained in his last year put him over the top.”

Allen showed up at Wednesday’s press conference to support his former quarterback, and said that he knows exactly what Boyd has been going through as he mulled over his decision.

“In his position, he was in a position where it was not necessarily a bad decision for him to leave and it definitely wasn’t a bad decision for him to come back,” Allen said. “I’m sure he had to fight through it a little bit, but being able to have people such as myself and Michael Vick and others to talk to and to lean on for information and knowledge about the NFL, certainly helped him and helped ease his decision.

“I gave him my whole spiel. I was done playing where at the end of last season I felt my game reached a certain level where I was not going to get any better and I needed a challenge. But, I received a first-round grade. But just because I received that first round grade, I didn’t get drafted in the first round. I ended up being drafted in the third round, which was still a blessing because I ended up with the best quarterback, in my opinion, in this past class.”

Allen said he gave Boyd what advice he could, but wanted to make sure that Boyd understood he couldn’t tell him what to do or make the decision for Boyd.

“Giving [Tajh} little tidbits like that I think helped ease the decision for him,” Allen said. “Also, he wants to have an opportunity to compete for a national championship to further what he has done at Clemson. I told him I would never make the decision for him, and I told him I didn’t want to be cursed with that and I didn’t want him to curse me with that.”

He said he was also able to help Boyd with some pointers on what it takes to succeed in the NFL.

“Those are some of the things I shared with him when he made the call,” Allen said. “Professionalism. There is a level of professionalism with those quarterbacks like Luck. I told him about the professionalism you have to have on that level to be successful. You see guys that didn’t have that – like Jamarcus Russell – and they weren’t in the league very long. I told him not only do I want you to be successful in my league, but I want you to be around for a long time.”