Bears trade for WR Keenan Allen
The Chargers really didn't genuinely try to keep Allen as they tried to trim significant cap dollars. When an apparent contract extension offer included natural (and automatic, in a sense) overall pay cuts and he balked at it, they traded him to the Bears for a fourth-round pick.
Allen will turn 32 in late-April, and he has missed at least one game in every season since 2020. But he is coming off a great 2023 campaign (108 receptions for 1,243 yards over 13 games), with the highest yards per game mark of his 11-year career (95.6).
Albeit with a cornerback room that wasn't nearly as good as the one they've now bolstered in free agency, the Lions got a close-up look at how good Allen was last season-too close, really. In Week 10, he had 11 catches (on 14 targets) for 175 yards and two touchdowns against them. They obviously had no answer for him, due to personnel or scheme issues (probably some of both), and he often got open with little or no resistance.
Now the Lions will see Allen twice next season, as he becomes a reliable veteran target for the presumed quarterback the Bears will draft highly (Caleb Williams?). And it's not like they can double-cover him constantly, with D.J. Moore opposite Allen and some other good pieces in the Chicago offense.
Things should go far better against Allen in 2024, but the images of him running roughshod through the secondary as a Charger last season are probably still burned into the retinas of Lions' fans.