Bears purchase WR Keenan Allen from Chargers for 4th-round decide

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears made their greatest splash in free company Thursday night time, sending a fourth-round decide to the Los Angeles Chargers in alternate for extensive receiver Keenan Allen, the groups introduced.

Allen, 31, is getting into the ultimate 12 months of the four-year contract extension he signed in 2020 and is due a $5 million roster bonus Sunday. After declining to take a pay reduce from the Chargers, he has a brand new house within the Bears’ offense reverse wideout DJ Moore.

Allen, a six-time Professional Bowl choice, will reunite with extensive receivers coach Chris Beatty, who coached the identical place with the Chargers from 2021 to ’23. Allen caught a career-high 108 passes final season and posted the second-best output of his 11-year profession with 1,243 yards and 7 touchdowns. It marked the sixth time in Allen’s profession that he crossed 1,000 receiving yards.

Chicago has 4 picks remaining within the draft (Nos. 1, 9, 75, and 122 through Philadelphia) after sending one in all two fourth-round picks (No. 110) to the Chargers on Thursday.

“We’re extraordinarily excited so as to add Keenan to our staff,” Bears basic supervisor Ryan Poles stated. “His physique of labor speaks for itself and we look ahead to him elevating our offense.”

After catching passes from Justin Herbert over the previous 4 seasons, Allen might be working with a brand new quarterback in 2024. Bears incumbent Justin Fields is about to enter his fourth NFL season whereas Chicago is predicted to make use of the No. 1 decide on a quarterback, with USC’s Caleb Williams the consensus high decide. Poles has intimated that he could be open to buying and selling Fields this offseason, however as the primary wave of free company attracts to an in depth, Fields, 25, stays on the Bears roster with over a month till the draft.

Final month on the NFL mix, coach Matt Eberflus famous the precedence of including extra gamers to Chicago’s extensive receiver room. Former Bears receiver Darnell Mooney signed a three-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons in free company, leaving Moore, Velus Jones Jr., Tyler Scott and Nsimba Webster as the one receivers on the Bears’ roster. Webster has spent nearly all of his profession in Chicago on the observe squad.

“We do not have a number of depth there, to begin with,” Eberflus stated final month. “That is the primary half. Including some dynamic items there via free company or via the draft doubtlessly, so to me if you’re making an attempt to defend that, when you could have a weapon at tight finish and you’ve got a weapon on the X receiver like DJ. Once you add a bit or two to the opposite facet, it actually balances you out. It is exhausting to defend for certain.”

The addition of Allen provides Chicago one other bona fide star at extensive receiver. He’s coming off his fifth season with 100 receptions, which is tied for the third most in NFL historical past, trailing solely Antonio Brown and Brandon Marshall. Allen additionally holds the report for many video games with 15 receptions (3) and ranks fourth all time for many video games with 10 receptions. He had 4 video games with 10 receptions final season, tied for the second most within the NFL.

Allen is the third ability participant the Bears have added on offense this week, together with former Chargers tight finish Gerald Everett, who agreed to a two-year contract, and working again D’Andre Swift, who signed a three-year, $24 million contract Thursday.

Allen was amongst 4 Chargers gamers who entered the offseason with cap hits upwards of $30 million subsequent season, together with outdoors linebackers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa and extensive receiver Mike Williams, whom the staff launched Wednesday, saving $20 million this 12 months. The gamers represented 4 of the 5 highest non-quarterback cap hits within the NFL.

Allen’s departure at all times appeared unlikely, although. He was the longest-tenured participant on the Chargers, drafted by the staff within the third spherical in 2013. He has the franchise data for yards and receptions by a receiver. Most essential, Allen had maybe the very best season of his profession in 2023. Regardless of lacking the ultimate 4 video games with a heel damage, he set the Chargers’ single-season report for receptions and was probably the most dependable weapon in a receiving corps that was inconsistent all through the season.

“What Keenan Allen has meant to the Chargers for greater than a decade can not adequately be expressed via mere phrases,” Chargers proprietor Dean Spanos stated in a ready assertion Thursday night time. “There’ll solely be one Keenan Allen, and we can not thank him sufficient for the contributions he has made to our group each on and off the sphere.”

In January, Allen was probably the most vocal among the many Chargers’ stars about wanting to remain in Los Angeles. Mack stated he understood that the NFL was a enterprise, Bosa by no means spoke publicly about his future and Williams stated he wished to return, however did not achieve this as emphatically as Allen.

“I do not wish to go nowhere else,” Allen stated then. “I have been right here 10 years, such as you stated, the longest man on the staff, so I am not wanting ahead to the rest.”

Allen went on to say he would play for under a choose few groups if he have been traded — in any other case, he would retire.

“If It did come right down to that, adios, amigos,” Allen stated then with a smile. “I will get picked up within the offseason or proper earlier than the playoffs like them outdated heads are doing.”

However the basic supervisor who drafted Allen, Tom Telesco, is gone, and new basic supervisor Joe Hortiz and head coach Jim Harbaugh do not have the identical ties to him.

With Allen’s departure, Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston are the Chargers’ high receivers. L.A. has the No. 5 decide within the draft, and contemplating the loaded receiver class, it appears possible that the Chargers will now take a look at that place.

ESPN’s Kris Rhim contributed to this report.