Ugh! It Sounds Like Keenan Allen Isn’t Going Anywhere Either

First, Tee Higgins was (emphatically) taken off the trade market. Now, Los Angeles Chargers receiver Keenan Allen is becoming the latest possible Chicago Bears trade target who won’t make it to the trade block after all.

At least, that’s what Chargers GM Tom Telesco is putting out publicly:

Although, it is worth pointing out that Andre Reed might not be the best 1-for-1 comp Telesco could’ve drawn up.

Sure, Reed was a Buffalo Bills lifer who spent 15 years with the team and was part of four Super Bowl appearances. The seven-time Pro Bowler with four 1,000-yard receiving seasons was an eventual Pro Football Hall of Fame. But he didn’t spend the entirety of his career in Buffalo. That is because the Bills cut Reed as part of a high-profile series of moves in February 2000. Reed, defensive end Bruce Smith, and running back Thurman Thomas were all cut on the same day to clear cap space. Because nothing like saying goodbye to the 90s like cutting three franchise icons for cap considerations. The Athletic’s Tim Graham took a look back at this situation in October 2020 (if you’re into history lessons).

But you probably didn’t come here for a Buffalo football history lesson. So, let’s circle back to Keenan Allen talk, shall we?

Allen’s name was popping up in conjunction as a possible trade chip because of the Chargers’ salary cap crunch. OverTheCap.com has Los Angeles’ other NFL team at $20,391,524 over the cap. There is still time to get out of the red. And there are a handful of ways the Chargers can circumvent cap issues with restructures, cuts, or trades of other players. Maybe that is the direction they’ll ultimately go in to get into compliance with the cap before the new league year begins on March 15.

Taking the Chargers’ cap concerns into consideration led the 30-year-old receiver to be seen as a potential cap casualty. For our purposes, this put him on our radar as a potential option for the Bears. After all, this team needs a legitimate top receiver and can fit a large salary on the roster. Because the Chargers were helpful in jump-starting Chicago’s rebuild, it made sense for these two to link up again. But not if Telesco insists on hanging on to Allen for the time being. Onto the next one, I guess.