Chargers receiver Keenan Allen catches a pass agianst the Bears in October.
Ashley Landis/AP
Everyone was waiting for Bears general manager Ryan Poles to make a big move in this pivotal offseason.
He came through late Thursday night with a surprise trade.
The Bears dealt a fourth-round pick to the Chargers for six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Keenan Allen, a source said. Finally, a sign they’re truly in win-now mode.
Allen, 31, was as good or better than any receiver available in free agency and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Even with the Chargers in disarray and quarterback Justin Herbert missing time with an injury, he caught 108 passes for 1,243 yards and seven touchdowns.
As good as DJ Moore is, Allen has even stronger credentials and gives the Bears a chance to turn one of their biggest weaknesses into a strength. They’re still sitting on the Nos. 1 and 9 picks in the draft and could target an elite prospect at wide receiver in LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze at No. 9.
That will be a huge help to whoever plays quarterback this season, which is expected to be USC star Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick. Prior to the Allen acquisition, the Bears had no one else with more than 30 career catches.
Allen became available after 11 seasons with the Chargers — he was around so long that he played his first four in San Diego — because they were in a huge salary-cap crunch. They already had to cut veteran wide receiver Mike Williams and restructure contracts of defensive stars Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa to get under the cap and needed to offload Allen to have any flexibility going forward.
Allen was going into the final season of his contract and was set to count $23.1 million against the cap. It was unclear immediately what his number would be for the Bears, but Over The Cap had them at $56.3 million in space before the trade, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Allen is right there with Brandon Marshall as one of the most accomplished receivers the Bears have had in the last several decades and has had more success at his position than any player on their current roster.
He opened his career with a 1,000-yard season as a third-round pick out of California and topped that number five more times.
He missed nearly all of the 2016 season with a torn ACL, but since then has played 101 of a possible 115 games. Over his last seven seasons, he has averaged 98 catches for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns.
While Poles has been conservative in free agency during his first three years with the Bears, he has proven very aggressive in the trade market. In his first year, he dealt a second-round pick to the Steelers for wide receiver Chase Claypool, and last season he traded a second-rounder to the Commanders for Pro Bowl defensive end Montez Sweat.
The Claypool trade quickly unraveled on him, and Poles unloaded him for next to nothing within a year. He said he was “bummed” about that, but that chairman George McCaskey and president Kevin Warren encouraged him to, “Keep shooting your shot.” He certainly did that Thursday.
It was a necessary swing, too. Other than Moore, very little has worked out for the Bears lately at a crucial position. Poles thought he had it solved with the Moore trade, which stacked him on top of Claypool and former 1,000-yard receiver Darnell Mooney, but Claypool fizzled and Mooney had the worst season of his career before leaving for the Falcons as a free agent this week.
The Bears still have many needs, but this likely signals the end of their big plays other than the draft. It was a relatively quiet free agency before the Allen trade, with the only major offensive addition being Pro Bowl running back D’Andre Swift.