The Chicago Bears knew they had to do something at wide receiver this off-season. GM Ryan Poles wasn’t able to make any headway in the free agency market. Many felt that meant he planned to address the issue in the draft. Then, during a late evening in March, the news dropped. Chicago had traded one of their 4th round picks to the Los Angeles Chargers for six-time Pro Bowler Keenan Allen. It was a true bombshell. Nobody saw it coming, especially after L.A. seemed to handle their salary cap issues.
Suddenly, the Bears had two legitimate star receivers on their roster: him and D.J. Moore. All of this is right on the precipice of taking a quarterback #1 overall in April. Some people were reluctant to get too excited. Yes, Allen is a starter. He is also turning 32 this year and hasn’t dealt with health issues the past two seasons. He also has only one year left on his contract. One person who doesn’t care about any of that is Andrew Hawkins. The former NFL receiver has seen Allen’s type before.
He believes the Bears committed highway robbery in the trade. Not only is Allen great now, but he should stay that way for some time to come.
Keenan Allen isn’t reliant on talent alone.
Typically, the players who fall off in their early 30s are the ones who were ridiculously talented but never truly became masters of the craft. On the other hand, technicians like Jerry Rice, Steve Smith, Isaac Bruce, and others often excelled into their mid-to-late 30s because they knew all the tricks of getting themselves open. Allen is the same way. He possesses an almost scientific approach to route-running that gives cornerbacks fits. It doesn’t matter how fast or athletic they are. Unless they can perfectly predict where he’s going on every play, he will get open.
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Having Moore on the other side makes his life even easier. With all due respect to Mike Williams, this will be the best receiver Keenan Allen has ever played with. Defenses won’t be able to constantly double him because it will make life too easy for Moore. That is before getting into the threat Cole Kmet poses as well. The Bears didn’t trade for him with the expectation he’d have to carry the load himself. Allen will be one piece to a larger puzzle, and that should help to extend his career, just like San Antonio did with Tim Duncan.
Two highly skilled proven WRs who are class acts is about as good as you can do for a rookie QB. Bravo Chicago Bears. Now just get Odenze IF he falls to bring along with their new QB. Only problem would be passing up on Verse to do that.
If Odunze is there at 8 I would be willing to give up whatever future draft pick package the Falcons want to get that pick and take a DE and Odunze at 8 and 9.
I’ll take a healthy, wily veteran over a top WR because of the number of picks available and the fact that the picks we have are more suited to players with upside later in the draft. Trading #9 scares me though. Not because it’s not smart, but the player you lose out on there might be a long term solution and the picks you get might take time to be effective. I know that no one wants to trade future picks for current year picks, but if you see a guy worth the investment it’s no worse than using the… Read more »
Give Poles credit. He’s doin’ it. I didn’t foresee trying to be a win-now team this year but it looks more and more like the path he’s taking. I thought it would be more of a transition year. So the hits will keep on coming. Will be very interesting now.
Personally, I don’t buy the hype on JJ McCarthy at all. Let someone else take that gamble. His HC bolted for the NFL after winning a NC, that’s cool and all. If JJ is drafted to sit a year, I’m down, but if he’s starting his 1st year, then he’s on a bad career trajectory. Similar to what Indy did with ARich this year. Sorry, but that was disgusting, IMHO. Harbaugh is providing lip service for his guy, and maybe he see’s JJ’s ceiling, but he was also able to protect him, limit his throws, and provide him a solid… Read more »
Will be cool to have weapons on Offense for a change.