As the Chargers headed toward the start of the league year last week, new general manager Joe Hortiz had a puzzle to solve with massive salary-cap hits on wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and pass rushers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa.
After restructuring Mack’s and Bosa’s contracts, he cut Williams and traded Allen to the Bears for a fourth-round pick. The Chargers escaped his $23.1 million hit this season but lost a six-time Pro Bowl talent coming off a big season.
“Yeah, I knew who I was trading,” Hortiz told reporters this week. “He’s a very talented player, and I respect him as a player, as a person.”
He added that the team tried multiple times to work out a new deal with Allen, but none came together.
Allen’s agent, Joby Branion, posted on X that the Chargers made only one offer: “A pay cut for 2024 with a two-year extension [and both years had even deeper cuts to his current pay].” Branion said he made a counteroffer to keep Allen with the Chargers, but they rejected it, and “then we were informed of the Chargers’ intention to trade [Allen].”
Allen, 31, played 11 seasons for the Chargers. He arrived in Chicago as the Bears’ most accomplished player at any position. He reached 1,000 yards for the sixth time in his career last season, when he had 108 receptions, 1,243 yards and seven touchdowns.
When asked about the Chargers’ proposed pay cut in a reworked contract at his introductory news conference with the Bears, Allen shot it down quickly.
“It really was no emotion — it was, ‘I’m not doing it,’” he said. “I just came off my best season, so it’s not happening.”
