On Thursday, March 14th, 2024 the Chicago Bears announced their biggest free agent move so far during the National Football League’s 2024 offseason by sending a 4th – round NFL draft pick to the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for the crafty and still productive veteran wide receiver in Keenan Allen.
Keenan Allen
The now 31 – year – old Allen is currently entering the last season of his 4 – year contract extension that he signed with the Los Angeles Chargers back in 2020, and he is due only a total of $5 million via a roster bonus this Sunday. Following Allen’s decision to ultimately decline to take a pay cut with the Los Angeles Chargers, Keenan has now found a new home in Chicago with Da Bears, and Allen will most likely now line up on offense opposite the Chicago Bears number – 1 wide receiver in D. J. Moore.
Allen is a 6 – time Pro Bowl selection at the moment, and he now be able to reunite with his former wide receivers coach in Chris Beatty. Beatty managed to coach the wide receiver position with the Los Angeles Chargers from 2021 to 2023. Allen roped in a career – high 108 – passes during the 2023 – 2024 NFL season as well as posting the 2nd – best numbers of his very productive 11 – year career in the National Football League with 1,243 – yards and 7 – touchdowns. It marked the 6th – time in Keenan’s pro football career that he crossed the 1,000 – receiving yards threshold.
“We’re extremely excited to add Keenan to our team,” the Chicago Bears general manager, Ryan Poles, stated. “His body of work speaks for itself and we look forward to him elevating our offense.”
Chicago Bears QB Questions
After catching passes from his former QB, Justin Herbert, over the previous 4 – NFL seasons, Keenan will now be working with a new quarterback for the upcoming 2024 – 2025 NFL season. The Chicago Bears incumbent quarterback in Justin Fields is presently set to begin his 4th – NFL regular season while the Chicago Bears are expected to use their number – 1 NFL draft selection on a quarterback such as USC’s Caleb Williams who is mainly the consensus number – 1 top pick this April. Poles has suggested that he would be open to trading Fields during the current 2024 NFL offseason, but while the 1st – wave of the NFL free agency market is coming to a close, Fields remains on the Chicago Bears official team roster with just over 1 – month until the 2024 NFL draft goes down.
The Chicago Bears Wide Receiving Unit
Last month at the National Football League’s scouting combine from Indianapolis, Indiana, the Chicago Bears head coach in Matt Eberflus noted the immediate priority of adding more players to Chicago Bears wide receiving squad.
The former Chicago Bears wide receiver, Darnell Mooney, signed a 3 – year contract with the Atlanta Falcons during the current NFL free agency period, leaving D. J. Moore, Velus Jones Jr., Tyler Scott, and Nsimba Webster as the only wide receivers on the Chicago Bears official team roster at the moment. Webster has spent the majority of his pro football career in Chicago with the Bears’ practice squad.
“We don’t have a lot of depth there, first of all,” the Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus expressed last month.“That’s the first part. Adding some dynamic pieces there through free agency or through the draft potentially, so to me when you’re trying to defend that, when you have a weapon at tight end and you have a weapon at the X receiver like D. J. When you add a piece or two to the other side, it really balances you out. It’s hard to defend for sure.“
Keenan Allen’s NFL Records
With the addition of Keenan, it enables the Chicago Bears offense another bona fide star at the wide out position. Allen is coming off his 5th – NFL season with 100 or more receptions, which is tied for the 3rd – most in entire history of the NFL as he only trails Antonio Brown as well as the former Chicago Bear in Brandon Marshall.
Allen also holds the NFL record for the most games with 15 – receptions at 3, and he ranks 4th – all time in the NFL for the most games with 10 – receptions. Keenan had a total of 4 – games with 10 – receptions last year, tied for the 2nd – most in the National Football League.
Other Important New Additions to the Chicago Bears’ Offense
Keenan is the 3rd – skill player the Chicago Bears have added on offense so far this week, along with former Los Angeles Chargers tight end, Gerald Everett, who agreed to a new 2 – year deal with the Chicago Bears, and the running back in D’Andre Swift signed a brand spanking new 3 -year contract worth up to approximately $24 million.
The Los Angeles Chargers’ 2024 Salary Cap Issues
Allen was amongst only 4 – Los Angeles Chargers players who entered the 2024 NFL offseason with cap hits upwards of $30 million, along with their outside linebackers: Khalil Mack as well as Joey Bosa and their wide receiver in Mike Williams, who the Los Angeles Chargers just released last Wednesday in order to save their franchise $20 million this season. The players represented 4 of the 5 highest non – quarterback cap hits in entire the National Football League this year.
Keenan’s departure from the Los Angeles Chargers always seemed unlikely as he was the longest – tenured player on the Los Angeles Chargers team in which drafted him in the 3rd – round of the NFL draft back in 2013. Allen holds their franchise records for yards and receptions by a wide receiver, and most importantly, he had perhaps the best season of his illustrious NFL career throughout the past 2023 – 2024 NFL season. Despite missing the last 4 – games with a heel injury, Allen set the Los Angeles Chargers’ single – season record for receptions, and he was the most reliable offensive weapon in a receiving corps that was extremely inconsistent last year.
“What Keenan Allen has meant to the Chargers for more than a decade cannot adequately be expressed through mere words,” the Los Angeles Chargers owner, Dean Spanos, mentioned through his very well – prepared statement written by his attorney last Thursday night. “There will only be one Keenan Allen, and we cannot thank him enough for the contributions he has made to our organization both on and off the field.”
In January of this year, Keenan was one of the most vocal among the Los Angeles Chargers’ star players regarding wanting to stay in Los Angeles to continue playing for the Chargers. Mack stated that he understood that the National Football League was a business, and Bosa never publicly discussed his future while Williams said he wanted to return as well, but he did not do so as emphatically as Allen did recently.
“I don’t want to go nowhere else,” the newly acquired Chicago Bears WR in Keenan Allen explained. “I’ve been here 10 – years, like you said, the longest guy on the team, so I’m not looking forward to anything else.”
Keenan went on to disclose that he would play for only a select few NFL franchises if he were traded otherwise, he would retire and the Chicago Bears must have been on that short list of his.
“If It did come down to that, adios, amigos,”Allen goes on to say. “I’ll get picked up in the offseason or right before the playoffs like them old heads are doing.”
The general manager who drafted Keenan Allen, Tom Telesco, is now gone, and the Los Angeles Chargers new general manager in Joe Hortiz and their new head coach, Jim Harbaugh, did not have the same ties to him as Telesco ultimately did.
With Keenan’s departure for the Los Angeles Chargers, Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston are presently the L. A. Chargers’ top wide receivers. The Los Angeles Chargers currently hold the number – 5 overall selection in the upcoming NFL draft this April, and considering that this year’s loaded wide receiver class remains strong it seems very likely that the Los Angeles Chargers will be focusing heavily on that position prior to the 2024 – 2025 NFL season with their new regime.
Allen’s Football Career Achievements, Honors, & Awards
- NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award Winner (2017)
- 6 – Time NFL Pro Bowl Selection (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023)
- PFWA All – Rookie Team Selection (2013)
- First – Team All – Pac – 12 Selection (2011)