Tyler Allgeier broke the Atlanta Falcons rookie rushing record in 2022 with 1,035 yards while averaging a healthy 4.9 yards per carry.
Going into the 2023 season, it was almost a foregone conclusion that the former BYU star would continue as the Falcons' lead back. After all, as a fifth-round pick playing on a minuscule 4-year, $4 million rookie-scale contract. Many of us BYU fans were hoping for a Pro Bowl season in his sophomore 2024 campaign.
And that's when the trail came off the rails.
Instead of riding with Tyler Allgeier for the foreseeable future, the Atlanta Falcons front office violated one of the most commonly-held truths of the NFL Draft: Don't take a running back in the first round!
In 2023 the Falcons invested the No. 8 overall pick in fellow running back Bijan Robinson, a draft day decision that shocked many, and baffled BYU fans. Robinson was just one of three running backs to be drafted in the first two rounds that year, joining Jahmyr Gibbs and Zach Charbonnet.
Now, there's no debating Bijan Robinson is a great player. He absolutely is. There's a reason he made the Pro Bowl in each of the last two seasons. But Robinson's ascension came at Tyler Allgeier's expense, and as a BYU fan that has led to three seasons of constant frustration.
Tyler Allgeier's criminal underutilization by the Falcons
I often use the word "criminal" when describing how badly the Falcons have underutilized Tyler Allgeier over the past three seasons. I have also used the phrase they have committed "football malpractice" with the limited touches they have given him.
Yes, I'm passionate about Tyler Allgeier's usage rate.
Over the last two seasons Allgeier has averaged just over eight carries per game. Eight! This from a guy who exceeded 1,000 yards as a rookie while averaging nearly five yards per carry!
Allgeier's game logs are incredibly frustrating to behold. In 2025 Allgeier had four carries or less in six different games, and Atlanta lost five of them. Four carries, people!
And not only was the low amount of carries in Atlanta frustrating, so were the situations in which Tyler was deployed. He was often used as a battering ram on third-and-short to run up the gut against seven-man fronts. Despite this he still averaged 4.3 yards per carry with the Falcons with a healthy 51.6% Success Rate. This advanced metric measures yards gained based on down and distance, so it gives Allgeier credit for grinding out two-yard first downs on third-and-1. As a frame of reference, Bijan Robinson's Success Rate is 52.7%, so just one percentage point above Allgeier's as the two backs often faced very different downs and distances.
But with the conclusion of the 2025 season, so also concludes Tyler's four-year rookie contract. He will be a free agent this coming offseason, and he would be wise to get the heck out of Atlanta.
Tyler Allgeier's exciting future
As BYU fans we know what Tyler Allgeier can do as a lead running back.
In 2020 as a junior at BYU he rushed for 1,130 yards and 13 touchdowns, averaging a mindboggling 7.5 yards per carry. He was an All-American Honorable Mention that year.
The bruising running back followed that up with a brilliant 2021 senior campaign in setting the new BYU single-season rushing record with 1,606 yards and an incredible 23 touchdowns, which tied him for the most in the country that year.
Fast forward four years. In the coming months some fortunate NFL team will have the chance to sign him as their lead back for 2026 and beyond.
The only benefit to the way the Atlanta Falcons underutilized Tyler is that he still has plenty of tread left on his tires. As he prepares to enter his age-26 season, he's a proven difference-maker but still has some untapped potential, too.
Tyler Allgeier is a 2022 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon with only 35,000 miles on it.
While the current running back free agent market doesn't command salaries like it did 10 years ago, some team is going to sign the BYU legend to a nice multi-year contract, and even then Allgeier is going to outperform his cap hit by a wide margin.
It's time for Tyler Allgeier to run from Atlanta. It's time for Tyler Allgeier to start running the ball again.