The Chicago Bears added a significant offensive weapon to play opposite of DJ Moore when they inked veteran wide receiver Keenan Allen, who has been one of the top wide receivers in the league while playing his entire career so far with the Chargers organization.
On Thursday, the Bears reached a trade with the Los Angeles Chargers to bring Allen to the Windy City.
The perennial Pro Bowl wide receiver spent his entire NFL career with the Chargers before Thursday’s trade, racking up over 900 receptions and 10,000 receiving yards in powder blue thanks to a route-running dominance that is now expected to help the Bears turn the franchise around.
“I’m definitely excited about the new opportunity,” Allen said Saturday in his introductory news conference. “Being with a new organization, this organization has a lot of tradition. Obviously wanted to finish my career [with the Chargers], but things happen and you’ve got to keep on going.”
The surprising trade out of L.A. came to pass after the team approached Keenan Allen about a pay cut, which he refused. An entirely new Chargers brass led by head coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz didn’t have the same loyalty toward Allen others might after seeing him blossom from a 2013 third-round pick when the club was still in San Diego to one of the league’s premier wideouts 11 seasons later.
Hortiz and Harbaugh inherited a Los Angeles Chargers team in cap trouble, and made a business decision. Allen, too, approached the request to restructure from a place removed of emotion.
There really was no emotion, it was, I’m not doing it,” he said. “I’m not doing it. Came off my best season, so it’s not happening.”
The process led the Chicago Bears to land a game-changing wide receiver via trade for the second straight offseason.
Allen, who turns 32 in April, inarguably put together his most impressive campaign in 2023. Despite sitting out the final month of games while nursing a heel injury, he set a career high with 108 catches, which he turned into 1,243 yards and seven touchdowns. On a per-game basis, his 95.6 yards was also tops in his so-far terrific NFL tenure.
He pairs perfectly with DJ Moore, acquired last March from Carolina and also coming off his best year as a pro. Allen is liable to make a play anywhere on the field, but he excels at coming open underneath and moving the chains. Moore, whose yards-per-reception average is nearly three more yards than Allen’s, will be all the more dangerous deep with a six-time Pro Bowl talent pulling focus opposite him.
New Chicago Bears WR Keenan Allen Excited About Playing With DJ Moore
With Saturday’s move to trade Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Allen and Moore will be a veteran tandem with two different skill sets for the rookie QB — most likely Caleb Williams out of USC — the organization drafts in April.
Allen understands the issues he and Moore will create for opposing defenses.
Anytime you’ve got two guys that can make plays and beat man coverage, it’s going to be tough,” Keenan Allen said of the duo they’ll form. “That’s anytime. Obviously, he’s a guy who’s made plays in this league for a long time, and myself as well. Both of us together, it’s going to be pretty good.”
With the Chicago Bears’ recent addition of D’Andre Swift, they also boast a stable of complementary running backs, as well as sturdy option at tight end in Cole Kmet. It’s the most stacked Chicago has been across the offensive skill positions in roughly a decade, when the club was powered by the likes of Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery and Martellus Bennett.
The trade for the Los Angeles Chargers WR is the latest move that proves the Bears are attempting to build a loaded roster where they can plug in a rookie QB and find immediate success.
