Will the Chicago Bears target a top wide receiver like Chris Godwin in free agency? / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
It looks like the Chicago Bears are about to have a Keenan Allen-sized hole in their wide receiver room.
After one year in the Windy City, it appears that Allen will be allowed to walk in free agency, meaning Bears GM Ryan Poles needs to find a quality WR3 for sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams. Because at it stands, after D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze, the cupboard is bare.
But The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain isn't as concerned as one might think.
In his last-minute NFL free agency preview, Fishbain claims that wide receiver is, "...an underrated position of need," for Chicago, before adding, "Tim Patrick makes a lot of sense to fill that role after 394 receiving yards for [Bears head coach and former Lions offensive coordinator Ben] Johnson in Detroit last season."
Nobody's arguing that Patrick would make for a quality Bear -- he knows how Johnson works, he accepts his role, he's fully recovered from his ACL and Achilles surgeries of, respectively, 2022 and 2023, and he'll be affordable -- but plenty would argue that landing a wide receiver isn't at all "underrated."
Fact is, the Bears badly need a new pass catcher.
Sure, there are a number of lower-end wide receivers on the market, but Poles should seriously consider throwing a bunch of money at Chris Godwin.
The likely-soon-to-be-former-Tampa-Bay-Buccaneer will command a salary somewhere in the range of $30 million a year. That would eat up a goodly chunk of Chicago's salary cap, but it would give the Bears one of the most formidable WR trios in the league.
Yeah, we all know everybody felt that way about a Moore/Odunze/Allen triumvirate heading into the 2024 season, but that group was playing with a rookie quarterback who was stuck running game plans drawn up by Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown. In retrospect, we should've known there was no way they could have possibly met expectations.
If Poles wants to save his free agent bucks for a center like Drew Dalman or an EDGE like Josh Sweat, he can take a flyer on younger pass catching options like Darius Slayton, Elijah Moore, or Rondale Moore.
Whatever direction Poles goes -- young, old, expensive, cheap -- WR3 is a position of need, and thus far from underrated.