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.
.@Hawk is very bullish on the receivers that the Bears have to potentially surround Caleb Williams 📈
“[Keenan Allen] is more like Tim Duncan as a wide receiver. He only gets better with age.” pic.twitter.com/Q9eTyLN93o
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) March 19, 2024
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.
