The 2021 Chicago Bears offseason has seen plenty of highs and lows. One of the earlier situations involved the future of wide receiver Allen Robinson. The Chicago Bears front office wasted no time in franchise tagging Robinson, who accepted the tag back in March.
Robinson was a part of a large 2018 free-agent class. He inked a three-year, $42 million dollar deal with $25.2 million guaranteed after spending four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars. After three seasons of incredible production for the Chicago Bears combined with inconsistent quarterback play, all signs were pointing to a new extension.
Yet it’s June of the 2021-2022 season and the receiver is still without a long-term deal. Allen Robinson’s $18 million dollar tag is one of the highest cap hits for the Chicago Bears this season. Other players, such as Cairos Santos, Eddie Jackson and Mario Edwards saw well-deserved extensions, yet discussions with Robinson on a new deal have been slim.
It also doesn’t help that Allen Robinson has been showcasing his antics on Twitter in a way that has sent panic throughout the Chicago Bears community. Social media has displayed the receiver liking tweets of people asking him to come to other teams. While it doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’s hard to look past a team’s star offensive weapon engaging with such posts.
Allen Robinson commits to the Chicago Bears minicamp and 2021 season
The time to panic is over — at least for now. It seems like the former Penn State player and the Bears are taking the first step towards a long-term outlook.
Robinson made it seem like he was ready for the season with this tweet on June 14th.
When it's time to battle, I'm the first one at the doeee!!! pic.twitter.com/EhCPj4GK9p
— Allen Robinson II (@AllenRobinson) June 14, 2021
Ian Rapaport made it official with a subtweet.
The #Bears franchised WR is in the building… https://t.co/YtyKDzDjKR
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 14, 2021
The fact that the former Jaguar is reporting for mandatory minicamp is a huge sigh of relief for the Bears. After making a move to acquire Justin Fields in the 2021 NFL Draft, having what many would imagine to be his WR1 is a necessity. It’s not even solely because of Robinson’s value, but rather for the development of Fields as the Bears’ long-term solution to quarterback.
There’s no guarantee as of now that Robinson will be a Bear in 2022. Yet his commitment to mandatory minicamp shows that he is dedicated to this season in a year where the outlook of the team is once again riding on the shoulders of a rookie quarterback.