The Keenan Allen trade has been a massive disappointment for the Chicago Bears

One of the main reasons fans thought that Caleb Williams was in a position to succeed with the Chicago Bears is that he has a solid core of pass catchers.

D.J. Moore was a top wide receiver last year, Rome Odunze was a top-ten pick, and Keenan Allen has had a borderline Hall-of-Fame career. 

While Odunze is starting to have his moments and Moore looks good when Williams can hit him, the addition of Allen has been a disaster for the team. When the Bears traded for him, that was the risk. Allen is 32 years old, which is firmly the age when receivers start to fall off of a cliff. 

This is only a bit surprising because Allen is praised for his ‘old-man game’ that was expected to age gracefully. It has not. Entering the Arizona game, Allen ranked 82nd out of 100 qualified receivers in yards per route run. 

On Sunday, he only made things worse. Allen had a pedestrian 36 yards, which is actually four yards more than his per-game average so far this season. Still, he added an ugly drop and a push-off that led to pass interference with those stats. 

Chicago Bears have to be disappointed in Keenan Allen

As the Bears have tried to sort out the roster, one area of strength has turned into a weakness thanks to Allen. 

Even if you saw him falling off, no one saw it coming this fast and this hard. He was at 95.6 yards per game last year and is career-low 55.9 yards per game coming into this season. Even if he was averaging 20 more yards per week, it would still be the worst year of his career by far. 

The Bears did not trade a lot for Allen, and they will likely be letting him walk in free agency after this season. With that in mind, the move is not a complete disaster that will hurt them for years. However, it is time for Bears fans to accept that the Keenan Allen era in Chicago will not be remembered fondly. There is no way to assume that he will improve this year, and the Bears have to accept this and work in Rome Odunze as the number two wideout. 

Allen should slowly fade out as the clear-cut number three. This is not what fans or the team wanted or predicted.