Chargers’ Harbaugh on Keenan Allen Trade: Bears WR Gets $23M, ‘Who’s Got It Better?’

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVMarch 25, 2024

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The Los Angeles Chargers, facing a cap crunch this offseason, chose to trade Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick rather than absorb his $23.1 million cap hit in 2024.

On Monday, the team’s new head coach, Jim Harbaugh, said the situation worked out just fine for Allen.

“It’s the business part of it,” he told reporters regarding the trade. “And everybody does what’s in their best interest. And Keenan, I mean, [you] make $23 million a year and play in Chicago, you know—who’s got it better?”

It was a slightly impersonal take on trading a beloved franchise cornerstone after 11 excellent seasons with the Chargers, like a couple divorcing and one person saying, “Hey, it’s not so bad—you’re still getting the house.”

Yes, the NFL is ultimately a business, and the Chargers chose to preserve cap space by moving on from Allen and fellow wideout Mike Williams while keeping edge-rushers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa after the pair agreed to restructured contracts this offseason.

But there is also the human and sentimental element to the profession. Getting traded means a player has to uproot their family, a big change after more than a decade with a single team, and Allen was a six-time Pro Bowler for the Chargers. His loss will be felt.

In that regard, general manager Joe Hortiz told reporters that moving on from Allen wasn’t a decision made lightly:

“Yeah, I knew who I was trading. He’s a very talented player and I respect him as a player, as a person. It’s difficult when you have to cut a player, trade a player, release a player. It’s always difficult for a player like him certainly, but it creates an opportunity for other players to step up. Again, we’re not done building that room out so we’re going to look to continue to add pieces to that room.”I think when you’re talking about trading Keenan specifically, yeah that’s not a decision you make with no acknowledgment of, ‘This is a talented player that can still compete.'”Hortiz added that the Chargers approached Allen with “multiple different options and just none of them worked out” this offseason. But Allen’s agent, Joby Branion, pushed back on that statement:

Joby Branion @jobybranionTo be clear, only one offer was made. It was a pay cut for 2024 with a 2-year extension (and both years had even deeper cuts to his current pay). We made a counter offer. It was rejected. Then we were informed of the #Chargers intention to trade @Keenan13Allen.

And Allen made it clear he had no interest in reducing his pay.

“There really was no emotion,” he told reporters at his introductory press conference with the Bears. “It was, ‘I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it.’ Came off my best season, so it’s not happening.”

Allen set a career high in catches (108) last season while adding 1,243 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Even at 31, he showed little signs of slowing down. And now he’ll be a very well-paid, reliable security blanket for a rookie quarterback—more than likely Caleb Williams—in Chicago.

Not a bad rebound, in other words.