With the July 15th deadline approaching and no signs of progress on a new deal, it looks like Allen Robinson will play the 2021 season on the franchise tag. The Chicago Bears have shown no urgency to get an extension with their star wide receiver done. That would suggest they’re content with this approach. Many fans can’t believe it. This means it is all but certain that Robinson will hit free agency in 2022. Something ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler claims he is banking on.

However, it might not be that cut and dry. Another insider, Adam Caplan of SportsGrid and FoxSports Radio offered some interesting nuggets on the situation. He made it clear Robinson has sought a new contract from the Bears going back two years. So we’re talking about the spring and summer of 2019. He also said Robinson’s firm stance has nothing to do with the team’s quarterback situation. This is about money. It was then he dropped something else.

The idea that Chicago might not be against tagging Robinson a second time.

For those who aren’t familiar. The franchise tag process is like this. An NFL team is allowed to tag a single player no more than three times. If they do it twice in a row, then they must pay that player 120% of the salary he made the previous year. So if the Bears were to tag Robinson again, it would be at 120% of $17.98 million. That works out to $21.576 million.

While that is a lot for a receiver, it is still only enough to be the third-highest per year salary in the league with Julio Jones ($22 million) and DeAndre Hopkins ($27.25 million) being comfortably ahead. Committing that kind of money to Robinson long-term seems out of the question for the Bears. For a single season though? Maybe that is more economical.

Tagging Allen Robinson a second time would be difficult

Not impossible though. According to OverTheCap.com, the Bears are projected to have just over $36 million in cap space next offseason. That may sound like a lot, but with 50 pending free agents? It really isn’t. The good news is they have ways of creating more with two likely moves. Cutting Robert Quinn and Nick Foles. Regular releases for both would put the team at $45.89 million in space.

That would leave the Bears with $24.314 million remaining for other business. Not great but far from terrible. That should be enough to start getting extensions worked out for others like James Daniels and Bilal Nichols. Ryan Pace has proven he can find bargains to fill out other spots as needed. Then the draft can be used to do the rest. It isn’t an easy approach. Still, it does buy them time. Either to continue negotiating with Allen Robinson or to find a proper replacement.

It is doable.

Certainly not the ideal solution to the problem but it allows the team to keep their best receiver around while their young quarterback Justin Fields begins his NFL journey. Robinson will probably hate it. Even so, he’ll get a healthy pay raise for next year if it happens. If nothing else, this might explain why the Bears haven’t seemed to eager to get that long-term deal done.