Getty WR Allen Robinson
Allen Robinson’s future with the Chicago Bears remains a not-so-beautiful mystery. Robinson will play out the year on the franchise tag after Chicago failed to sign him to a multi-year extension by the July 15 deadline, and it’s unclear whether or not the team will be able to lock him down when he becomes a free agent next season.
Former Bear and current Packers starting safety Adrian Amos weighed in on the situation via Twitter, asking this about A-Rob: “What more does he have to prove?” When a fan replied to Amos, suggesting Robinson could have “had a better deal with Green Bay,” three years ago, Robinson’s agent, Brandon Parker, let the fan know how much their two cents was really worth, calling it a “fake story:”
@blancodouche @_SmashAmos31 @AllenRobinson 🤫 stop with this fake story too.. PLEASE
The running narrative has been this: Robinson chose to play with Mitch Trubisky over Aaron Rodgers — but Parker’s response seems to strongly refute this. So what gives?
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It Was Reported in 2018 That Green Bay Was Interested in Robinson
Robinson signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Bears in 2018, after coming off surgery to repair an ACL tear the year prior in Jacksonville. It was widely reported at the time that the Packers were one of the teams interested in signing him, with a few outlets reporting that it came down to Green Bay or Chicago.
“He garnered early interest from the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns, two teams with enormous amounts of cap space. The Green Bay Packers also entered a bidding war for Robinson’s services. In the end, it came down to the Packers and the Bears. Robinson chose the Windy City,” Mike Kaye of First Coast News reported back in March of 2018.
Robinson, who hails from Detroit, told Kaye at the time that he chose the Windy City in part because it’s close to his hometown … but so is Green Bay.
“With all things being equal, Chicago was a place I had my eyes on from a football standpoint,” Robinson told First Coast News shortly after signing with the Bears. “It’s a spot with a lot of benefits as far as it being close to home. The close-to-home thing was a very minimal factor but it was still a factor.”
It’s hard to imagine a young wideout choosing not to play with Aaron Rodgers, so the it’s likely the Packers had an offer out there that was simply too low. Regardless, Parker’s response suggests that Robinson didn’t exactly have a great offer from the Packers.
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So Why Did Robinson Choose Chicago?
Perhaps Robinson was intrigued by Chicago’s then-new coaching-QB combo. 2018 was Matt Nagy’s first year as the team’s head coach, and it was Mitch Trubisky’s second season. There was plenty of hope and hype surrounding them both three years ago.
A-Rob also lauded the coaching style of Nagy at the time. Nagy, who had just been hired a few months prior, wound up going 12-4 and winning Coach of the Year that season, so things certainly started off well in Robinson’s tenure with the Bears.
“For me, going into the whole free agency process, Chicago was definitely a team I had my eye on, from the standpoint that they had just hired Coach [Matt] Nagy,” Robinson said in 2018. “Coach Nagy was a big part of it … I’m a big fan of his system and his offense.”
Thus, this likely boils down to Green Bay not offering Robinson what he feels he’s worth — or at least something comparable to the $42 million Chicago did– if the Packers offered him anything at all. Green Bay never confirmed or denied its rumored interest. Either way, Parker had some revealing words to those suggesting his client chose Trubisky over Rodgers, so we should probably listen.
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