Maybe it was coincidence.
It probably wasn’t.
At 10:06 Monday night, Allen Robinson posted a GIF from his Twitter account of Will Smith sitting on the set of the “The Tonight Show.” The actor bites his fingernails nervously before clapping violently with a smile on his face.
Robinson had reason to cheer: 11 minutes earlier, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that wide receiver Amari Cooper had agreed to return to the Cowboys. The price: five years, $100 million, with $60 million guaranteed.
It was the richest contract for a receiver in NFL history, surpassing the $96.25 million deal the Saints gave Michael Thomas in July.
Cooper’s deal set the market for receivers. Which is a big deal for Robinson. He’s due an extension, and soon.
Robinson is entering the final year of a three-year, $42 million contract he signed coming off a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He’s set to receive a $3 million roster bonus on Friday and make $10.9 million in base salary this upcoming season.
Robinson’s contract shouldn’t make it to training camp — or perhaps even to April Fool’s Day. Both sides would benefit from an extension, perhaps before the free-agent frenzy is complete.
— Allen Robinson II (@AllenRobinson) March 17, 2020
Doing so could lower his cap hit from $15 million — provided the Bears were creative — to give the team more money to spend during the free-agent period that began Wednesday afternoon. It would avoid a season-long staring contest over the franchise tag next year, something that neither side wants.
An extension would vault Robinson into the echelon of receivers more befitting his second season with the Bears. His 98 catches last year rank fifth-most in franchise history, his 1,147 yards eighth-most. Despite playing six NFL seasons, he’s only 26 — and doesn’t have a birthday until August.
An extension will be costly. Robinson might not hit $60 million guaranteed, like Cooper, but $50 million could be in range.
Still, it would be the best move the Bears make for their offense all offseason. It would be, to date, the only move guaranteed to improve Matt Nagy’s scheme in both the short and long terms.
All the world knows that the Bears’ top priority this month is to fix their offense. They haven’t unequivocally done so — at least yet. The team’s two major additions are far from airtight answers at their two biggest positions of need.
Neither quarterback Nick Foles nor tight end Jimmy Graham is expected to dominate in 2020. Despite being under contract, there’s no guarantee either is on the Bears’ roster in 2021.
Foles is perhaps the greatest pinch-hitter in the history of quarterbacks, marching the Eagles to a championship, and earning himself Super Bowl MVP honors, three seasons ago. He’s one of the streakiest passers in the league, too — at the end of the 2018 season, Foles tied an NFL record with 25-straight completions.
He hasn’t proven in years, though, that he can succeed during the course of a full season. He hasn’t started five regular-season games since 2015. In eight NFL seasons, he’s started more than 10 games exactly once.
Graham is on the back end of his career. His yards per game over the past three seasons have been 32.5, 39.8 and 27.9. By comparison, receiver Taylor Gabriel, whom the Bears cut last month as a cap casualty, averaged 39.2 yards per game last year.
The Bears are betting that Foles and Graham can both succeed in the right situation.
The fastest way to create one is to give Robinson the extension.
Cue the Will Smith clip.
