Is Braelon Allen BETTER Than Breece Hall??

I think it's time to have the Braylon Allen conversation, and when I say the Braylon Allen conversation, I mean in relation to Brees Hall, and what happens once he returns from injury, which it sounds like that could be as soon as this week's game against the Dolphins, so what will the Jets' running back room look like, and what should it look like? Let's talk about it. Brees has of course missed the last three games due to injury, and in his place, Braylon Allen has stepped in and played the best football of his entire NFL career, and as somebody who was on record this summer saying that I thought Isaiah Davis was a better overall football player than Braylon Allen I was wrong that's just untrue it's categorically false Braylon Allen is balling over the last three weeks Allen ranks fifth in the entire NFL in total rushing yards behind only Bijan Robinson Kenneth Walker James Cook and Bucky Irving he also ranks second in yards after contact with 221 behind only Bijan Robinson and he leads the NFL with 15 missed tackles forced and 10 runs of 10 plus yards he's been one of the best running backs in the NFL since Brees Hall got hurt. And yes, some of that came against not-so-great run defenses, but I don't think it's possible to argue that Brees Hall has been a better and more effective player for the Jets this year than Braylon Allen, because he just hasn't. And there might be a reason for this. A couple of people pointed this out on Twitter, and I think this opinion is gaining traction, that Brees Hall just might not be a really good fit for the Jets' zone blocking scheme, whereas Braylon Allen has seemingly excelled in it. Entering the season, Hall's 5.2 yards per carry on man or gap runs ranked third among 51 qualified running backs over the last three seasons meanwhile his 3.79 yards per carry on zone runs ranked 41st out of 51 qualified running backs so he clearly has a strength here what's interesting about this is last season with Tanner Engstrom as the offensive coordinator the Jets actually ran the second highest rate of zone blocking in the NFL but this season with Frank Reich calling plays they're actually sixth highest in man blocking yet Breece has still struggled just for context for those who don't know the difference between these two schemes in a man or gap blocking scheme offensive linemen are assigned to a particular predetermined defender that they'll be blocking before the snap whereas in a zone blocking scheme linemen are kind of blocking like a gap or an area or i guess a zone and how that affects the running back is in man blocking schemes you're kind of just hitting the hole like there's a predetermined read that you have on a play and there's not a lot of thinking that goes into it whereas in zone blocking schemes you kind of have to read your offensive linemen's leverage and there's more patience that goes into it and clearly that's just something Braylon Allen seems to do better at than Breece Hall. And even with the Jets adopting more of a man blocking scheme that has carried over into 2026 because on zone runs this season Braylon Allen is averaging 4.77 yards per carry whereas Brees Hall is averaging just 2.93 yards per carry. All of this is to say Braylon Allen deserves a significant role in the Jets offense once Brees comes back. I would like it to be closer to a 50-50 or 60-40 split although unfortunately I don't know if that's going to be the case. I think it's more likely that Brees Hall comes back and the Jets relegate Braylon Allen to the second in command role. And one would hope that maybe Frank Reich can get creative and get both of them on the field at the same time and just use them both. I don't have high expectations for that. I think it's kind of going to be Breece's backfield when he comes back. We'll see what happens. That might be this week. In reality, the Jets just paid Breece Hall a lot of money and he's an accomplished player who this staff thinks highly of, and they're not going to just push him aside because Braylon Allen had a few good games. That being said, I think what Braylon Allen has done over the last three weeks is better than anything Brees has put on tape this year. And if that trend continues and Brees continues to struggle while Allen makes the most of his opportunities we'll see man I think there might be a shift in the pecking order at some point this season