Chicago Bears WR Allen Robinson confirms theory regarding 2021 season

The saga between the Chicago Bears and veteran wide receiver Allen Robinson appears to be reaching a disappointing end once the New League Year starts for the NFL in March. After the Bears utilized the franchise tag last off-season in order to retain Robinson for one more season, it would appear that the wide receiver will look to sign with a new team once he becomes a free agent next month.

There is no question that the 2021 season was the worst season of Robinson’s 8-year career. Robinson was limited to 12 games last season due to COVID protocols and injury. In those 12 games, the wide receiver only compiled 410 receiving yards and 1 touchdown on 38 receptions.

Initially, the lack of success from Robinson this season was attributed to the inconsistent quarterback play that the Bears had this past season. Robinson was paired with a veteran Andy Dalton to begin the season and then a rookie in Justin Fields.

Fields, most notably, had very limited reps with Robinson during training camp and pre-season. The quarterback theory does not checkout, however, considering that Robinson has had productive seasons in the past with quarterbacks such as Mitchell Trubisky, Nick Foles, and Blake Bortles.

Instead, there was a growing theory during the 2021 season in regards to the lack of production from Robinson. The theory was that Bears head coach Matt Nagy was phasing Robinson out of the team’s offense. Robinson confirmed that theory on Tuesday while replying to a tweet.

There is a fan theory that the Chicago Bears phased Allen Robinson out of the offense.

The numbers that Robinson tweeted were the number of targets that the wide receiver had with the Bears during the past three years with the team. Robinson was the most targeted receiver for the Bears in 2019 and 2020 with 154 and 151 targets respectively.

The fact that Robinson’s targets in 2021 dropped by nearly 100 is a sign that the Bears were treating Robinson as if he was a fringe player as opposed to their primary wide receiver.

One argument that could be made in regards to Robinson only having 66 targets with the team last season is that the wide receiver only appeared in 12 of the team’s 17 games last season. On the surface, that would make some sense but would not account for a near 100-target decrease.

In his four seasons with the Bears, Robinson averaged 8.1 targets per game. During the 2021 season, Robinson averaged 5.5 targets per game. That means that in 12 games, Robinson should have been closer to 97 targets based on his career average with the team.

There is no question that Robinson deserves some criticism for the lack of effort that he showed at times during the 2021 season. There is no excuse for that. But, what Nagy did to Robinson is simply negligent.

Nagy had the Bears’ best offensive player schemed out of the team’s game plan. It is no wonder why the Bears’ offense struggled last season and it is further confirmation that Nagy should not have been the team’s head coach last season.