People are starting to get nervous about Keenan Allen. The six-time Pro Bowler felt like a great addition when the Chicago Bears traded for him a few months ago. A trio of him, D.J. Moore, and Rome Odunze felt like a perfect setup for Caleb Williams. However, insider Albert Breer of the MMQB raised alarms when he revealed Allen showed up to training camp at 230 lbs. Considering he has weighed around 211 for most of his career, that means he was 19 lbs overweight. This was soon made worse by accusations from onlookers that Allen looked sluggish and slow during his first preseason appearance against Buffalo.
Ted Nguyen, a prominent film analyst for The Athletic, reviewed the game tape from the Bears’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday. One Allen clip caught his eye, and he couldn’t help but raise concerns.
What makes all of this frustrating is that the reports are conflicted. Many accounts from Halas Hall indicate Allen has looked good in practice. He’s getting open regularly and looks exactly like the player the Bears traded for. This raises two questions: Are people close to the team covering up how bad it looks, or is Allen not going full speed in the games? All things considered, the latter seems more likely.
He’s 32 years old and has been in the NFL for over a decade. At his age, summoning the motivation to go full speed in a preseason game is difficult. The results mean nothing, and it only increases the risk of injury. Besides, there is no way the Bears could keep such a thing a secret from the local media. There already would’ve been whispers of him looking out of shape. Nothing of the sort has surfaced, even from known team skeptics like Dan Wiederer and Jason Lieser.
The Bears don’t seem at all concerned about Keenan Allen. They’ve loved his progress throughout the summer, building a swift connection with Williams. The two have looked sharp in practice together on multiple occasions. Allen is a professional. He doesn’t seem like the type to suddenly let himself go, especially in a contract year. The likely explanation is he’s going through the motions in the preseason, saving his strength for the games that matter. Some fans may not like it, but they have no control over his thought process.
