Bears: Despite Control Via Franchise Tag, Team Not Out of Woods Yet with Allen Robinson
With a few different options to chose from, the direction in which Robinson leans could hinge just as tightly on who’s under center next season as the Bears’ overall potential for improvement.
What’s in a Tweet? Or rather, Allen Robinson’s response to one?
Robinson gave his one-click stamp of approval not to being franchise tagged Tuesday, but to Sports Illustrated columnist Andrew Brandt’s notion shortly thereafter that fellow wide out Kenny Golladay won big for not having been.
While not the least bit surprising given his opinion on the franchise tag designation, what Robinson does now is still really anyone’s guess.
With a few different options to chose from, the direction in which he leans—continue negotiating for a long-term contract, ask for a trade, hold out through training camp or worse, the season—could hinge just as tightly to who’s under center next season as the Bears’ overall potential for improvement.
Let the rumor mill tell it, Ryan Pace is willing to throw everything but his firstborn child at the franchise’s decades-long problem. But unless his offering pries Russell Wilson away from Seattle, any confidence in that position finally being brought up to code will likely bottom out.
Robinson’s patience for “mid” quarterback play could, too.
Only once in his seven-year career has Robinson had any say-so in who’d be throwing him the ball. When he decided to sign a three-year, $42 million deal to come to Chicago three years ago it was under the pretense that he’d be a part of an uptempo offense with the yet-to-betray-all-hope Mitch Trubisky at the wheel.
That AR’s been far-and-away the Bears’ most lethal weapon ever since isn’t hard to believe. That his combination of catches (102), yards (1,250) and touchdowns (6) last season were in a class with only four other players—Stefan Diggs, DeAndre Hopkins, Davante Adams, and Travis Kelce—who, unlike Robinson, actually played in competent, high-powered offenses is, however, reason to do a double take. (For what it’s worth, Robinson’s base salary would pay him more than what Diggs, Hopkins, Adams, and Kelce are all set to make next season).
It’d be a stretch to think anything could take precedence over securing a long-term commitment on Robinson’s to-do list. But in lieu of that career bucket list item, the idea of catching passes from quarterbacks cut from the cloths of Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, or Patrick Mahomes could have one helluva constellation prize ring to it.
Robinson has toed the company line to a fault to this point, proving not only to be worthy of Pace’s roll of the dice on him following his knee injury four years ago but also to be one of the better pass catchers in the NFL.
How long before even the most consummate of professionals who stars in a position known to cast the most volatile of personalities on the field crosses over?
It would seem every wide receiver is one egregious overlook or overthrow, perceived slight or irksome designation away from throwing a fit; in plain sight or behind closed doors.
Through his own doing, Pace was forced to walk the line between appeasing Robinson and leaving enough of what little financial wiggle room he has to improve his roster. With the Bears exceeding the salary cap by approx $17 million, according to Over The Cap, Pace still has barely enough room to put one foot in front of the other.
And now Robinson himself has been painted into a corner.
But should he decide his best course of action is to engage in a high-stakes game of chicken, he ought to be viewed as someone simply doing what’s in his own best interest.
No different than what Pace did nearly a week ago.
Drew Stevens is a Senior Writer for WARR Media, he lives and works in Chicago