Rumor: Bears interested in DE Jared Allen

Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

I’m trying not to get excited about this rumor, but it’s difficult. Jared Allen has been terrorizing the Bears for the last 6 years since he joined the Vikings. In those 6 years he’s had 85.5 sacks and hasn’t had a single-digit sack season since 2006. Allen, 31, looked like he lost a step last year and it was the first year of his career that he had a negative grade from Pro Football Focus, but Allen still had 11.5 sacks.

Despite the Lamarr Houston signing, the Bears are still very thin at DE after releasing Julius Peppers. Right now the Bears starting DEs are Lamarr Houston and someone out of the David Bass, Cornelius Washington, or Cheta Ozougwu group. Yeesh. There is always the option of drafting another DE. That path is risky though because the draft is thin at DE and rookies are rarely ready to start on day 1.

None other than ESPN’s Adam Schefter is the source of the Bears rumored interest in Jared Allen, so it seems legitimate to me. If that isn’t enough for you, Walter Payton’s son, Jerrett, also tweeted about the Bears targeting Allen. I’m sold.

Allen’s price tag could be a potential catch. The Broncos were originally considered the favorite for Allen but have moved on to DeMarcus Ware, citing Allen’s high price tag as a deal breaker. The Bears did free up some cap space by releasing Julius Peppers and Michael Bush this week, but they still have less than most teams and have so many holes on the defensive side of the ball that they can’t sink all of their available cap money into one position.

I’ll keep updating this post as the rumors come in, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one of the Bears most dreaded adversaries might be wearing a Bears uniform next season.

Twitter: @MikeFlannery_