Allen Robinson said this week that, entering the final year of his deal, neither he nor his agent have heard from the Bears about a contract extension.
“We haven’t heard nothing,” the receiver said on ESPN1000’s “Carmen and Jurko” on Wednesday. “I think just as far as me and my agent, from the conversations that we’ve had, we’re not necessarily anticipating hearing anything at this point.
“For us, we’re going into camp preparing ourselves to have a good year. If that comes up and they reach out to my agent, I’m sure they’ll have pretty good discussions and things like that, but again, that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it will happen. I can’t predict the future, so I don’t know if that will happen at all.”
Robinson and his agent know general manager Ryan Pace tends to cut those deals closer to the regular season. Last fall, center Cody Whitehair became the fourth Bears player in as many years to sign an extension in September but before the season opener — and the fifth, if you count the Bears’ 2018 trade for outside linebacker Khalil Mack, who signed a new deal.
Pace extended guard Kyle Long in 2016, defensive tackle Akiem Hicks in 2017 and nose tackle Eddie Goldman in 2018. All but Long were, like Robinson, entering the last year of their contacts.
Robinson is finishing up a three-year, $42 million deal. The Bears could give him the franchise tag in 2021 if the two sides can’t reach an extension.
Uncertainty about this season doesn’t favor an easy extension. Last month, the NFL’s football operations department said camp was expected to begin July 28, with rookies allowed to report sooner. That is less certain now — the Bears have yet to announce a training camp schedule. Robinson characterized camp details as “slightly up in the air.”
The NFL and the NFL Players Association are still negotiating training-camp terms, from opt-out provisions to testing and safety protocols to the existence of preseason games. Texans star J.J. Watt Tweeted on Thursday that he’d participated in four NFLPA calls over two weeks and “nothing has been agreed upon regarding what training camp will actually look like.”
