Before Chicago was labeled where quarterbacks go to die, it was the place where wide receivers go to die.
Keenan Allen played for a season in Chicago and is still alive, though. He doesn't have a team yet and apparently wants to sign with one.
For some reason there is a strong group of Bears fans who think the team still should bring Allen back even though he took $23 million of cap space up last year and gobbled up a lot of targets that could have easily been going to developing Rome Odunze during a wasted season of losses.
Hel-lo...they drated Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland as cheaper targets.
We really don't learn, they let Keenan Allen go and why do they trust a rookie who hasn't done anything and we believe they are the immediate solution? ♂️
— Aless (@alessandro_83ca) June 12, 2025
Allen probably can still play at age 33 even though he has missed 13 games in the past three seasons. It's just not going to be in Chicago, although he had said he'd be willing to return here.
Apparently, it's not going to be somewhere else, either.
Allen appeared on a stream with Jgoofylive and despite speculation he'd fit in well with Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh, it's not happening.
NEWS: #Bears star quarterback Caleb Williams and Keenan Allen were hanging out together this weekend.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) April 3, 2025
Allen, a 6x Pro Bowler, is still a free agent, and it appears that Chicago would still like him back. pic.twitter.com/XPP5AAQoMt
Allen said he hadn't even been following the Aaron Rodgers-Steelers drama closely and wasn't even aware of the signing until well after it occurred.
"There's two sides to the story," Allen said. "A-Rod being the quarterback, of course that interests you. But Pittsburgh? No."
Allen had already revealed where he wants to go if he could't come back to Chicago.
"It's Chicago or I'm back to L.A.," Allen said.
Keenan Allen said he'd like to run it back with the Bears next season. pic.twitter.com/SkOliP9Ust
— Dave (@dave_bfr) December 5, 2024
There has never been interest shown by the Bears for his return, so he's either focused on getting one of the Los Angeles teams interested or apparently won't be playing.
Allen did bring good route running and a target in the middle of the field to help keep Caleb Williams from being sacked even more than 68 times, but the Bears basically wasted $23 million in cap space with his signing and gave up a fourth-round pick in doing it.
The longer Keenan Allen goes unsigned, the higher the odds are he comes back as WR3.
— Bears Insider (@benjohnsontime) March 11, 2025
I'd be shocked if he goes anywhere other than LAC or CHI.
He had a good, team attitude and was a friend to Williams, but so was Odunze and the Bears would have been better served by just getting Odunze or DJ Moore even more targets, or, better yet, Cole Kmet more.
After all, Kmet had just 55 targets, his second fewest, in a year when he caught an NFL tight end high of 85% of his targets.
Keenan Allen should be on our roster, right NOW. Instead we want to trade for someone. Allen is a unsigned free agent.
— Craig Ressler (@CraigRessler) June 3, 2025
The Allen signing was another in a series of Poles mistakes with trades or signings of receivers, although not quite as large of a disaster as trades for Chase Claypool and N'Keal Harry.
Not all of Poles' trades with receivers involved failed. He did acquire Moore that way.
Calling my shot…Keenan Allen signs by Monday. Gotta unload these bags. pic.twitter.com/RxMEMUe4fa
— Ryan Beck (Bobo) (@ryanbobobeck) June 14, 2025
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