Chargers’ Keenan Allen on pace for a record-setting receiving season

COSTA MESA — There are at least two reasons why Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen leads the NFL with 97 receptions through the first 12 weeks of the season. First, he’s a skilled tactician with 11 seasons’ worth of battle-tested experience. Second, who would you rather have Justin Herbert pass it to?

If he continues to average eight-plus catches per game, Allen will shatter his career high of 106 receptions set in the 2021 season, the most recent of his five selections to the Pro Bowl. He will also break the Chargers record of 107 catches set by running back Austin Ekeler last season.

After all, Allen is on pace for 145 receptions this season, the most since wide receiver Cooper Kupp of the Rams caught the same number during his remarkable season in 2021. Kupp was 28 at the time, a five-year veteran in the NFL and an unstoppable force on a team that won the Super Bowl.

Allen, 31, isn’t the fastest wide receiver in the league, but he is fast, and he runs his routes with a precision honed over his many years with the Chargers. He stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 211 pounds, which doesn’t make him the tallest receiver in the league, but he’s certainly not the smallest.

“We’re a better team when he touches the ball,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “So, we’re always going to try to get him the ball.”

Allen has set a standard for what a Chargers wide receiver should be, according to Jalen Guyton, who is in his fifth season with the team. There have been other great receivers to catch passes from other standout quarterbacks over the years, and Allen is simply carrying on the tradition.

“Being able to watch Keenan and watch his routine and how he approaches the game, how he approaches every week, I really appreciate having a veteran like that to look up to and learn from because he does do everything right, from going to meetings, being respectful in meetings, helping out some of the younger guys,” Guyton said. “He has so many really good habits.”

The Chargers began the season with Allen, Mike Williams and Joshua Palmer as the top targets for Herbert, and with Guyton expected back on the field sooner than later after a 13-month layoff because of a knee injury. The Chargers’ wide receiver depth was then tested in short order.

Williams and Palmer were sidelined by knee injuries, definitely for the rest of the season in Williams’ case and possibly in Palmer’s, too. Guyton hasn’t rounded into form yet from his injury and rookie Quentin Johnston has shown only flashes of the player he might someday become.

So, that’s left Allen as Herbert’s top target, not that he wouldn’t have been under better circumstances, mind you. But in the past three games, all Chargers defeats, Allen has caught 14 passes against the Baltimore Ravens, 10 passes against the Green Bay Packers and 11 passes against the Detroit Lions.

Allen set a Chargers record with 18 catches in their victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3, the same game in which Williams was injured. Allen became the second player in franchise history to top 10,000 yards receiving, trailing only Antonio Gates’ 11,841 yards, in a win over the New York Jets in Week 9.

Seemingly, the only thing that could stop Allen is the sort of injury that kept him off the practice field Wednesday, a quadriceps ailment. His availability for the Chargers’ game Sunday against the New England Patriots will be determined later in the week. He has played in each of the Chargers’ 11 games this season.

“He’s having a heck of a season, just showing a lot of toughness, showing a lot of leadership,” Staley said of Allen, who has seven touchdowns receiving and one passing this season, a 49-yard strike to Williams against the Vikings. “To still be playing at this (high) level, it says everything you need to know about him.”