It’s been trending this way for a while, but now it’s more or less official. The Bears and receiver Allen Robinson are not expected to agree to an extension, sources told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
As a franchise-tagged player, Robinson had until July 15th to work out a long-term deal with Chicago or decide to play 2021 under the tag. It appears he’ll go with the latter option, which will pay him about $17.9MM for the upcoming season. We just heard safety Marcus Maye won’t be inking a new contract with the Jets, which leaves five other tagged players up in the air.
We’ve still yet to hear for sure about Bucs receiver Chris Godwin, Panthers tackle Taylor Moton, Washington guard Brandon Scherff, Saints safety Marcus Williams, or Jaguars tackle Cam Robinson. We haven’t heard much at all about Scherff, Williams, or Robinson. As of a couple weeks ago the Panthers were hoping to extend Moton, while we heard just this past week Tampa wasn’t particularly close with Godwin
Robinson and the Bears have been at a stalemate for most of the past year, outside of last September when it briefly looked like things were headed in the right direction. There were rumors of a possible tag and trade this offseason, but nothing materialized.
Robinson opted to attend mandatory minicamp, and appears content to play this season out. He’s often been the lone bright spot on a struggling Bears offense the past couple seasons, and has proven to be immune to poor quarterback play. Despite last year’s anemic passing game and the shuffling between Nick Foles and Mitchell Trubisky, the Penn State product still finished with 102 catches for 1,250 yards and six touchdowns.
Now that an extension is off the table, the only question left to be settled is if it’ll be Justin Fields or Andy Dalton throwing him the ball in 2021.
Bears could not have botched this worse. It’s a real shame because moving forward they need a #1 for Fields and ARob really would have been the perfect complement to Mooney moving forward into the Fields era. Mooney is not gonna be able to do it by himself and they don’t have anybody in house who projects to be able to replace ARob’s production (once upon a time Miller seemed like he could be a candidate, but counting on him has proven to be a very dubious proposition)
He’s 28 I think. I wouldn’t sign a 28 year old receiver to a long term deal either.
Why? At worst if he signs a 5 year deal you’re looking at a 34 year old receiver when he’s done. And it’s not like he’s a middling guy. He’s a top 10 guy.
Agreed, not to mentioned he lost a couple seasons to injury so technically he’s got a lot more left. I could see them potentially hammering out a deal if the Bears put Fields on before end of season and if he plays well that’s more incentive.
He’s only missed one season.
He was voted by his peers 84 be real he will be good 2-3 more years but long term no long term but pay him next year for 2 years.At a high price.
I don’t see this as a disaster if the Bears put the cost savings towards OL upgrades which will likely benefit their young QB more than a top WR. Other receiver prospects may appear on the radar by 2022 but keeping your QB healthy behind a solid OL should always take precedence.
I hear both of you. I just think a deal locking him up til 31 or 32 really isn’t that bad. It’s reasonable to expect him to perform to a high level until then (especially because he’s more of a find the sticks, make a contested catch kind of guy as opposed to being a burner). Agree on the O-line but let’s be honest, Pace has never prioritized the O-line. Hell, they just cut a competent LT to save 7-8 mil while having no real money tied up there (I hope Jenkins works out there but I would have eased him in as a RT for a year first).
There’s a high probability that Pace won’t even be employed after this season so we can only guess what direction a new GM would want to take with the offense.
You have to have a Robinson level receiver, especially for a rookie QB. He’s had 47 contested catches since 2019 (most in the NFL) and 51 targets inside the red zone without a drop over the last 3 seasons with garbage level QB play. Guys like that expect to be highly paid and he’s worth every penny.
The Bears
Let him walk and put the money towards the offensive line. You got gifted Fields, now protect him.
I feel like fields is being overrated. He was the fourth qb drafted for a reason. Not to mention belechick seemed perfectly content with staying put and drafting Mac Jones. It seems as tho If fields does well everyone will praise him. If he bombs Nagy and Pace will be the ones who get blamed.
He outplayed Trevor in the playoff game. Looked much better than Trevor actually.
One game
It’s almost impossible to win without an offensive line! The Bears have ignored this for years. Build a line, protect the QB, and go from there.
$17.9M isn’t a bad salary but I understand why he wants long-term security…hope he stays healthy so he can find a contract next offseason
The Bears can tag him again next offseason also but at at a higher rate believe its about 20% more