JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The fans overwhelmingly approved. Media outlets say that the Jaguars got a steal.
And, most importantly, Josh Allen’s son, Wesley, sitting in his dad’s lap at Friday’s welcome to town news conference, approved. The 1-year-old hit the microphone, wiggled around, goo-gooed and gah-gahed and got help putting a helmet on his tiny head.
“Why you always talk when I talk?” Allen joked to Wesley, who was front and center at the first-round draft pick’s introductory event. “That’s messed up.”
Wesley was as much a part of his father's introduction to Jacksonville as Josh Allen was.
At one point, coach Doug Marrone, sitting to Josh Allen's right, reached his arms out to hold Wesley, but the toddler wasn't interested in moving.
He was content with his spot in dad's lap.
“He’s the reason why I play so hard and he’s the reason I go to work every day,” Josh Allen said.
Allen became a father in January 2018. He married his longtime girlfriend, Kaitlyn, one week before Thursday's draft, at the Kentucky Castle in Versailles, Kentucky.
"We know people that know people that got us in there," Allen said of the wedding venue.
It's been a long road to get here for Allen, an edge rusher from Kentucky whom the Jaguars selected in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL draft.
An unheralded two-star recruit out of high school with an offer from Monmouth, he picked up a late offer from Kentucky and signed with the Wildcats. There, he met his future wife, Kaitlyn (above), and wound up putting together an All-American career.
“Being a two-star is not fun,” Allen said. "I still have a lot of chips [on his shoulder] I’m going to play with this year."
The chip also included going a few slots down in the draft from where he was projected.
The Kentucky product played outside linebacker was a consensus top five draft choice in most every mock draft out there. When he fell to the Jaguars at the No. 7 spot, Jacksonville pounced and added Allen to a stout defensive line.
Allen (6-5, 262 pounds) will likely be asked to line up on the defensive line in the Jaguars’ base 4-3 defense (four defensive linemen, three linebackers). He’ll join a unit that includes ends Yannick Ngakoue and Calais Campbell, as well as interior players Taven Bryan and Marcell Dareus.
Allen’s goal — get into the backfield and blow the play up.
“Sacksonville, I’m about to be a part of that,” Allen said. “I feel like I’m the best at [sacking the quarterback] this year and I’m willing to get better each year.”
At Kentucky, Allen had 17 sacks last season, an SEC record since the NCAA began keeping sack totals in 2000. His last time at TIAA Bank Field came in the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl where Georgia Tech beat Kentucky 33-18.