March 28, 2024


Analysis

Hub Arkush: Allen Robinson wants to be a Bear for life, and no one says he shouldn’t

Why won’t the Bears make it happen, and do they not see they’re playing with fire?

Bears wide receiver Allen Robinson runs after catching a pass during the first half against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 29 in Minneapolis.

LAKE FOREST – Let’s talk for a minute about what we do know about Allen Robinson.

He is one of the classiest guys ever to wear the navy and orange.

If there was one player on the Bears I did not expect reporters would get to visit with Wednesday after A-Rob blew up social media with a deep cleaning of his Instagram and Twitter accounts that had nothing to do with the current public health crisis and everything to do with eliminating any trace of his current employer, there was No. 12, first man up in the Wednesday players Zoom conference.

And he showed with nary a disparaging word for anyone in the Bears’ organization.

In fact, he doubled down on his desire to remain a Bear for life.

“My heart and spirit [have] never wavered as far as the city of Chicago and playing for this organization,” he said. “Obviously, you dive into the business of the game, and there’s different variables that go into that. But how I feel about my teammates, how I feel about this team, how I feel about this city and everything like that has never wavered.

“To answer your question, I feel the same way how I’ve felt prior.”

All of which just further accentuated the question: How could general manager Ryan Pace and company have allowed it to come to this in the first place?

Before talking with Robinson, coach Matt Nagy took a crack at lowering the temperature, saying, “You know how we roll here. We talk about things, and so I had a great conversation with Allen – just excited about where we’re at.

“He’s a leader. He’s a very important part of our team.

“As far as the other part of it, that’s not my world. That’s both sides to deal through that, but I think that our players all realize the history that we have here in regards to taking care of guys, you know.”

Yes, we do know, and Nagy is right.

For wherever else the Bears may make mistakes, these kinds of family squabbles involving the most important players on the team just haven’t happened here in a long time.

So why now, and why with A-Rob?

Those questions were left unanswered, and although the talk has been dialed down for the moment, if a deal doesn’t get done much sooner than later, it will be back and more explosive than ever.

Not only is Robinson one of the most important players on the team for his leadership, character, ability, production and dependability, if the Bears have any hopes of salvaging quarterback Mitch Trubisky, they can’t minimize or eliminate Robinson.

I asked Trubisky how he felt about the importance of his No. 1 target, and he left no doubt where his head and heart are.

“I mean, Allen is just so reliable,” Trubisky said. “You can go to him in any situation, and the thing about him is when he’s not open, he’s still open. So just put it in his area, and he’ll go make a play for the offense.

“That’s my guy.

“We all love A-Rob, and we know what he brings to this team. And they’ve just got to get that done.”

The deal itself just shouldn’t be that hard.

The top guaranteed deals in the league right now are Odell Beckham Jr. at $65 million, Julio Jones at $64 million, Michael Thomas at $60.5 million, Deiondre Hopkins at $60.05 million, Amari Cooper at $60 million and Michael Evans at $55 million.

The top averages per year are Hopkins at $27.25 million, Jones at $22 million, Keenan Allen at $20.05 million and Cooper at $20 million.

Forget the endless debates about who’s the best and how to rank them. Which of those players is more valuable to his team than Robinson?

The deal should be five years at $95 million to make it cap-friendly the next two seasons with between $55 million and $60 million guaranteed, and it should be done now.

With where this team is at and A-Rob’s place on it, what the Bears need to understand is right now he’s holding all the cards, and by showing up Wednesday and playing the good soldier, all he did was tighten his grip on them.

If the Bears don’t get this done in the next week to 10 days, this could snowball into a disaster this regime never recovers from.

• Hub Arkush is a Shaw Media correspondent.

Hub Arkush

Hub Arkush

Hub Arkush was the Senior Bears Analyst for Shaw Local News Network and ShawLocal.com.