NEWSLETTER
On the field, Bears receiver Allen Robinson is Mitchell Trubisky’s favorite target and the offense’s best player. Off the field, Robinson is a respected member of the community, who’s performed countless wonderful, charitable acts of kindness and donation. All things considered, he is very deserving of a new deal that keeps him in Chicago for the foreseeable future, and fans have been obsessively awaiting any such news.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet. In fact, Robinson told ESPN 1000’s Carmen DeFalco and Chris Bleck (you can listen to the show’s podcast here) the team has not come to him (or his agent) with an offer regarding a contract extension:
“We haven’t heard nothing. I think, just as far as me and my agent, from the conversation we had, we’re not necessarily anticipating hearing anything from them at this point. For us, we’re going into camp preparing ourselves to have a good year. And that’s all I can focus on. If that comes up and they reach out to my agent, I’m sure they’ll have some pretty big discussions and things like that. But again, that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it will happen. I can’t predict the future, so I don’t know if the will happen at all. For myself, with this being the second time going into a contract year, I know how to mentally prepare myself and I know how to block all that out.”
If this is true, then this is nothing short of madness.
Robinson has gone out of his way to indicate how much he wants to stay with the Bears. First, he declared his aspirations to be an all-time Bears great back in December. Later that month, he expressed an interest in signing an extension. And that’s not the only time he has mentioned it. Robinson has made it a point at several junctures of this offseason, including saying he wants “to retire a Bear” as recently as April. And for what it’s wroth, the feeling appeared to be mutual, therefore, hearing GM Ryan Pace say the team had internal conversations about an extension felt encouraging. Apparently, that’s not the case if an extension hasn’t even been offered (let alone negotiated and agreed upon).
Perhaps (hopefully?) this is just part of the negotiating process on the part of Robinson. Or maybe it’s an attempt to push the negotiations down the line, when the financial picture is a little clearer across the sports landscape (not that that’s stopped other teams from handing out massive amounts of money). I suppose there’s not a huge rush to get a deal done, and the Bears have made it a habit to work through these issues to re-sign and reward their top players with extensions.
But if it isn’t, and the Bears and Robinson can’t come to a deal – or don’t even discuss the possibility – then I will rage over Chicago allowing its best and most valuable offensive player to reach free agency.
