Early years

Allen was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He attended Terry Sanford High School in Fayetteville, and played high school football for the Terry Sanford Bulldogs. During his career he had 68 receptions for 1,257 yards.

College career

Allen attended Clemson University, where he played for the Clemson Tigers football team from 2008 to 2011. He was redshirted in 2008. In 2009 he started six of 14 games and had 10 receptions for 108 yards and three touchdowns. He started all 13 games in 2010 and was a second-team All-ACC selection after recording 33 receptions for 373 yards with a touchdown.

Through the first seven games of his junior season, Allen had 27 receptions for 381 yards and four touchdowns.

Allen was named the 2011 recipient of the John Mackey Award on December 8, 2011 at the Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Show. He graduated from Clemson on August 9, 2014.

Professional career

Indianapolis Colts

Allen was drafted 64th overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 2012 NFL Draft. He was the second tight-end taken in the draft as well as the second taken by the Colts. He helped fellow rookie Andrew Luck lead the Colts to an 11-5 record. Despite their draft positions, Allen actually bested his teammate (taken 34th overall), Coby Fleener, in overall production ranking 7th best among the league's rookie receiving leaders. Allen and fellow rookie teammates T.Y. Hilton, Fleener, Vick Ballard, and LaVon Brazill combined for an NFL record 3,108 yards - the most by any rookie class playing for an NFL club since the 1970 NFL merger. Interestingly, the second best performance was the Colts 1999 rookie class with 2,751 yards. Allen finished the 2012 season with 521 receiving yards on 45 catches, and 3 touchdowns. Allen was intended to be a large part of new Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton's offense in 2013, but was placed on the injured reserve following a hip injury in the first game of the season. He finished the season with one catch for 20 yards and a touchdown.

Allen battled a knee injury late in the 2014 season, but started 13 games for the Colts and finished with 29 receptions, 395 yards, and 8 touchdowns. On November 8, 2015, Allen was poked in the eye by Denver Broncos' player Aqib Talib. Talib was given a one game suspension for the incident the following day. On December 30, 2015, Allen was placed on injured reserve.

On March 7, 2016, Allen signed a four year, $29.4 million extension with the Colts.

Career statistics

Regular season

Season	Team	Games		Receiving					Rushing					Fumbles
		GP	GS	Rec	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD	Att	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD	FUM	Lost
2012	Indianapolis Colts	16	16	45	521	11.6	40	3	3	5	1.7	3	0	1	0
2013	Indianapolis Colts	1	1	1	20	20.0	20T	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2014	Indianapolis Colts	13	13	29	395	13.6	41T	8	-	-	-	-	-	1	0
2015	Indianapolis Colts	13	12	16	109	6.8	21	1	1	1	1.0	1	0	-	-
	Total	42	42	91	1,045	12.5	41	13	4	6	1.5	3	0	2	0

Postseason

Season	Team	Games		Receiving					Rushing					Fumbles
		GP	GS	Rec	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD	Att	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD	FUM	Lost
2012	Indianapolis Colts	1	1	4	51	12.8	22	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2014	Indianapolis Colts	3	2	11	90	8.2	18	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Total	4	3	15	141	9.4	22	1	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0

[ Source: Wikipedia ]