Keenan Allen Sends Clear Message on Re-Signing With Bears

Getty Chicago Bears wide receiver Keenan Allen.

Keenan Allen is now one of the highest-priority extension candidates on the Chicago Bears after the team signed fellow wide receiver DJ Moore to a four-year, $110 million contract in late July. The 32-year-old is a six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver and is entering the final year of his contract during the 2024 season.

When the time comes for the Bears and Allen to sit down and talk about a potential new deal, though, there won’t be any confusion about how he feels about staying in Chicago.

Allen fielded a few questions about his pending 2025 free agent status after August 6’s practice, and while he said he is not currently worried about getting an extension done, he made it clear he can “absolutely” see himself staying with the Bears for several years.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Allen said with a smile when asked if he could envision a long-term future in Chicago. “We already have great chemistry in the locker room. Great friends I already made. The city is beautiful, the team is coming together nice, so absolutely.”

Allen signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2020 and caught a career-high 108 passes for them during the 2023 season, but the Chargers had also salary-cap issues coming into the 2024 offseason. To resolve them, they traded him to the Bears for a fourth-round pick in March, creating $23.1 million in savings.

Now Allen — who turns 33 in April — must settle in with a new team that has two other long-term receivers and prove with his play that he belongs in Chicago for the long haul.

“I have no problem doing that,” Allen said. “I’ll bet on myself any day of the week.”

Re-signing Keenan Allen Could Be Tricky for Chicago

The Bears made a bold play when they traded for Allen during the offseason. With the No. 1 overall pick in hand, they knew they would be installing a rookie quarterback at the helm of Shane Waldron’s new offense and felt strongly about what Allen could bring to the table in terms of both his elite-caliber play and his veteran mentorship.

Before even playing a snap, Allen is the most accomplished pass-catcher ever to occupy the Bears’ roster. He has more than 10,000 career receiving yards over his 11 seasons in the NFL and has made six Pro Bowl rosters in the past seven years with the Chargers. Allen’s experience should be invaluable to the Bears in 2024, but figuring out how he fits into the long-term picture — if he does at all — gets trickier beyond the new season.

Six weeks after trading for Allen, the Bears used the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 draft to select Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze. The Bears had concerns that Odunze would not still be on the board when they turned in the ninth overall pick, but a stroke of luck allowed things to fall perfectly and landed them a potential future superstar.

The Bears have also since reinvested in Moore, who is now signed through the 2029 season and will carry cap hits no smaller than $24.5 million in each of the next five seasons. While their commitment to Moore and Odunze does not necessarily mean they cannot also keep Allen, it will force them to consider how much they want to invest into the receiver position with other areas of the roster in need of greater investment, too.

Per Over the Cap, the Bears have just $39.3 million in projected cap space for 2025.

Keenan Allen Sees ‘Polished’ WR in Rome Odunze

There will come a time when the Bears must worry about what to do with Allen. For now, though, they can sit back and appreciate the many great things he brings to their offense for the 2024 season — including his mentorship for Odunze and the others.

Allen and Odunze are similar in the sense that both are route-running tacticians. The latter earned a reputation in college for his route-running while Allen is one of the finest route-runners in the NFL. Naturally, Allen said he talks to Odunze “almost every day” about the rookie’s development and that the pair bounces ideas off each other.

Still, Allen recognizes that Odunze is more advanced and “polished” than the average NFL rookie wide receiver — including himself when he was a rookie back in 2013.

“He’s polished,” Allen said. “You don’t have to teach him how to play receiver. He came in and he knows how to play the game, well coached in college obviously, knowing how to play. Now all he has to do is learn the offense versus he’s got to learn how to get lined up and release and do this, but he already knows how to do that.

“Get him the play and watch him work.”