SB Nation Chats With Colts Rookie TE Dwayne Allen

Here's a special treat for everyone on this fine Sunday morning. SB Nation's Dan Rubenstein, Joel Thorman, and Amy K. Nelson are in Los Angeles this weekend to cover the NFLPA's Rookie Premiere. At this event are new Colts QB Andrew Luck, TE Coby Fleener, and TE Dwanye Allen. SB Nation was able to get a few minutes with Allen, who was described by my friend Joel as "probably our best interview. Impressive."

Here's Dwayne Allen:

On Colts picking him: "I was the John Mackey award winner so it has a little irony in it. It's a tremendous honor. I'm looking forward to the season."

On reaction to landing in Indy: "Initial reaction would've been where is Indianapolis if I hadn't attended the Combine and the Super Bowl but I knew about Indianapolis. Indy is me, I feel like. The town, the people, they're hard working mentality, the chill, the suburbia of the town. That's exactly how I would describe myself."

On the Colts: "People want to say, coach Pagano talks about it all the time, you're in a rebuilding stage. This is the NFL. You don't rebuild. You just get better and reload. That's what we're doing here. We're re-loading with talent, coordinators, coaches and other stuff."

On Andrew Luck: "Andrew Luck is not only a heckuva quarterback but a greater guy."

On his role: "I have no idea how I'm gonna be used in this offense but whatever role they give me I'm going to embrace it and try to be the most consistent and reliable player on the team."

On Colts workouts: "Everyone's excited to be a Colt and excited to get back to work. I'm in OTAs the other day and kicking back on Dwight Freeney and he's made however many Pro Bowls and I'm thinking he's going to tone it down in practice but he puts his classic spin move on him and I end up on my back."

On who he's looking forward to matching up against: "Julius Peppers the first game of the season. Mario Williams up in Buffalo. Who else is on there? Clay Matthews coming off the end. I embrace that challenge because I know going into the game I'm going to give everything I have and no matter what I'm going to get better from the situation."

On what he needs to work on: "My lower body flexibility. I'm a stiff guy, have always been a stiff guy Talking about longevity, that's something that I need to improve right now. It's something that I work on everyday."

Thanks to Joel, Dan, Amy, and the crew for their work covering this event. I'm told we will have video soon on the interviews, including one that seems to feature Allen interviewing Andrew Luck. When it gets posted on SB Nation's YouTube channel, you shall see it here as well.

Note: The attached photo was Tweeted to be by SB Nation producer Josh Dodd, who happens to be a BIG Colts fan.