Los Angeles (AFP) - The Philadelphia Eagles released Olympic hurdler Devon Allen as NFL teams faced the Tuesday deadline to reduce their squads to 53 players for next week's start to the season.
Allen, 27, was a wide receiver with the University of Oregon but had not played gridiron since 2016 as he focused on his athletics career.
He was fifth in the 110m hurdles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and fourth at the Tokyo Games last year.
Allen clocked the third-fastest 110m hurdles time in history in June, but was disqualified from the final of the event at the World Championships in July.
By then Allen was already looking forward to battling for a spot with the Eagles, and the club reportedly plans to re-sign him to the practice squad if he is not claimed on waivers.
He made progress in the later stages of training camp and pulled in a 55-yard touchdown pass in a pre-season game against the Cleveland Browns.
"I'd like to give it a good go," Allen said of pursuing an NFL career in July.
"It’s not a one-and-done thing.This is a commitment from me.As long as I feel comfortable playing and feel like I can play good football, I’ll play."
Among other cuts on Tuesday, the Kansas City Chiefs released veteran wide receiver Josh Gordon.
Gordon shot to prominence with Cleveland in 2013 when he led the league with 1,646 yards.He helped the New England Patriots to a Super Bowl, but multiple violations of the NFL substance abuse policy brought multiple suspensions.
He joined the Chiefs in 2021 but ended up the odd man out with Kansas City adding newcomers JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and rookie Skyy Moore.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid didn't rule out a practice squad spot for Gordon.
"I'm proud of Josh for all that he did," Reid said Tuesday."There's a chance he's potentially back here."
The Buffalo Bills released tight end O.J.Howard, who had inked a $3.5 million one-year contract with the team in the offseason.
Even with his salary guaranteed, the Bills decided they had better options in Dawson Knox, Quintin Morris and Tommy Sweeney.
