Bears Pull Off Stunner, Trade for Keenan Allen

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After the Chargers cut Mike Williams and restructured Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack this week, the thought was that they were set from a cap perspective and wouldn’t be shedding anymore big contracts. Instead, the team dumped its longest-tenured star in a stunner late Thursday night, sending six-time Pro Bowl WR Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a fourth-round pick.

Allen, who turns 32 next month, has averaged over 1,110 receiving yards per year over the last seven seasons, including 1,000-plus five times in that stretch. After battling injuries early in his career, he’s played at least 13 games in six of the last seven years. The future Hall of Fame candidate is fourth among wide receivers in PPR points since 2017, behind only Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams and Stefon Diggs and ahead of names like DeAndre Hopkins and Mike Evans.

He will now head to Chicago, where he and DJ Moore will form the best duo of receivers the Bears have had since at least the Brandon Marshall/Alshon Jeffery era. Those two finished as the WR6 and WR8 last year, despite Moore having subpar quarterback play and Allen missing the last month of the season. It remains to be seen who will be under center for the Bears when the 2024 season starts, but the heavy favorite for that right now is Caleb Williams, who the Bears are expected to select with the first overall pick in April’s draft. In other words, they are giving their rookie quarterback all the pieces to succeed out of the gate.

We’ll see how the rest of the offseason shakes out in Chicago and exactly who the quarterback is, but both Allen and Moore look like WR2s with upside heading into 2024. Both veterans topping 1,000 yards is well within the realm of possibility.

Meanwhile, the joint departures of Allen and Williams in Los Angeles (along with RB Austin Ekeler and TE Gerald Everett) have really emptied the cupboard for QB Justin Herbert. The Chargers have signed RB Gus Edwards and TEs Will Dissly and Hayden Hurst, but those aren’t difference-making additions, and the wide receiver room is just about empty, headlined by 2023 first-rounder (and thus far bust) Quentin Johnston and speedster Joshua Palmer.

It looked earlier in the offseason like the Chargers might be a prime team to trade down from the fifth overall pick in the first round of the draft to get more assets, but with the receiver room now bare, it definitely increases the chances the Chargers keep the pick and take one of the big three receivers in the draft (Marvin Harrison Jr., Rome Odunze or Malik Nabers). The WR class in the draft is deep enough that the Chargers could still trade down, but getting rid of Allen and Williams would certainly indicate a plan to get a high-profile receiver in replacement.

Whatever the Chargers do with the offense the rest of the offseason, Herbert will have the worst array of weapons of his career in 2024. He’s shown enough ability to overcome a lot, but this would be a very tough ask for any quarterback. He’s probably dropping in fantasy rankings to the middle of the QB1s, not near the top.