Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

The first call after the ink dried on his new $30 million contract was to the football coach who once gave him a $10 bill and a purpose.

That was 12 years ago, back when Dwayne Allen was a freshman in high school, an aimless teenager who couldn’t stay out of trouble. Wayne Inman stumbled upon Allen in the hallway at Terry Sanford High, saw how big he was and asked him if he played football. Allen told him no. So Inman gave him a $10 bill and an order.

“Go buy yourself a bag of dope,” he told Allen, “or spend it on a physical and come out for football.”

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Allen did the latter, and found his passion. He became a star. Then he went to Clemson and did the same thing. Then he landed in Indianapolis, slogged through four seesawing seasons and was left wondering which team he’d play for next. Because after the disaster that was 2015, it certainly didn’t seem like it would be the Colts.

By late in the season, Allen, a talented and versatile tight end, had effectively been reduced to the role of an offensive lineman. He was a sixth blocker. He was underutilized. He was frustrated.

His future seemed secure: He wouldn’t be back.

“I had no idea what was gonna go down,” Allen says of his mindset heading into March’s free agency period. “It was a very stressful time.”

Then a funny thing happened. The Colts put on the full-court press. They told Allen they wanted him and needed him. They promised to make him The Guy. He signed for four years and $29.4 million, got in the car and the first person he thought to call was the high school coach who, 12 years ago, had given him a $10 bill and a purpose.

Allen told his old coach that, after all the uncertainty and all the doubts, he was staying in Indianapolis.

And this was Inman’s response: “Really?”

He wasn’t alone. The re-signing of Allen, over the more productive and more available Coby Fleener, was the stunner of the Colts’ offseason. Fleener was coming off a career-high 54 catches. Allen was targeted just 29 times in 13 games and battled injuries for the third consecutive season. He had just four catches for a first down all year.

But as free agency approached, the Colts made it clear they envisioned him, and not Fleener, as their tight end of the future. Allen was surprised. Delighted, to be sure, but surprised nonetheless. Like Inman said — really?

“I wasn’t anticipating that, especially with how the year went,” Allen conceded Wednesday before taking the field for the team's first of three minicamp practices this week.

Simply put, the Colts bet big on Allen because he can do everything. He can block like a lineman and catch like a receiver (he hauled in eight touchdowns in 2014). Of his disappearance in the passing game last season, coach Chuck Pagano has since pledged, “We’re going to address that this year.” But more than anything, Allen has proven his worth in the trenches. Nothing for the Colts this fall will matter if they don’t protect franchise quarterback Andrew Luck. Allen can. He’s done it.

That’s why he’s still here.

“Scheme would be the underlying factor,” Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson said of the Allen-over-Fleener decision at this spring’s NFL owner’s meetings. “Dwayne, his skill set is pretty broad, but he’s a very powerful and tenacious blocker at the point of attack. I would say that was one of the strongest factors in that decision, because we all know what Coby can do in the passing game. Dwayne brings a stouter presence in-line that we need with this offensive scheme.”

Even before the Colts reached out, Allen had come to peace with the uncertainty of the situation. He’d had a long talk with then-teammate Matt Hasselbeck, who preached patience. “Let the chips fall where they may,” Allen remembers Hasselbeck telling him. “There’s no need stressing about things you can’t control.”

So Allen worked out at the Colts’ West 56th Street headquarters in January and February, his way of telling the team he was committed to returning. But in the back of his head, he knew: There was no guarantee. The Colts couldn’t afford to keep both tight ends. Fleener had been more productive and more available. Allen would understand if it didn’t work out.

“The thing I clung to,” Allen remembers, “is if not here, somewhere.”

But then negotiations started, and negotiations went well, and after pinballing offers back-and-forth for a day or two, Allen’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, called his client to tell him the Colts were ready to pay him $29.4 million over four years. As it turned out, somewhere was here. The Colts weren’t letting him walk.

He called his mom on the way to the facility. He called Inman on the way home. He tweeted a photo of himself and Luck celebrating, two of the offensive pillars this franchise will lean on for years to come. “#Fourmoreyears #COLTSSTRONG” it read.

“I really want to be the best tight end in the National Football League,” Allen said Wednesday. “After signing, my focus went exactly to that.”

Dwayne Allen, the once-aimless teenager who took a $10 bill and turned it into $30 million.

His next goal? Earn every penny of it.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.