Halas Intrigue Bears Report: Slow and steady

NFL free agency is underway, and the Bears are being measured – and not particularly splashy – with new general manager Ryan Poles at the helm. Read the latest coverage and analysis below.

Allen Robinson finally found a team willing to pay him — and a high-level quarterback to throw him the ball.

The Bears, meanwhile, took their first steps toward replacing Robinson, signing the Chiefs’ Byron Pringle and the Packers’ Equanimeous St. Brown to one-year deals.

Robinson, who had spent the last two years looking for a long-term deal from the Bears that never came, signed a three-year deal with the defending Super Bowl champion Rams. He’ll get $30.7 million fully guaranteed and $46.5 million overall, a source said. 

Only 28, he’ll get a chance to hit the market again in no fewer than three years. Until then, he’ll line up alongside Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Van Jefferson and perhaps even Odell Beckham Jr. The Rams reportedly won’t let the Robinson signing keep them from pursuing Beckham, who tore his ACL in the Super Bowl.

Robinson will have Matthew Stafford, by far the best quarterback with whom he’s ever played, throwing him the ball. Robinson spent his first four years with the Jaguars and four more with the Bears. In the last two years alone, Robinson had four different Bears quarterbacks start at least six games: Justin Fields, Nick Foles, Mitch Trubisky and Andy Dalton.

Former Bears outside linebacker Khalil Mack was watching the TV show “Bel-Air” with his fiancée and son last week when he got a call from agent Joel Segal telling him that he had been traded to the Chargers and would be heading to Los Angeles.

“Kind of a strange coincidence,” he said. “But it was weird to hear.”

Mack was surprised to be traded but not shocked. He knew the Bears’ landscape had changed when general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy were fired after the 2021 season. He had not talked to new GM Ryan Poles until after Segal broke the news that Mack had been traded to the Chargers for a 2022 second-round draft pick and a 2023 sixth-round pick. 

“Different GM, not the GM that traded for me, so you never know what can happen in those situations,” Mack said in a news conference with Los Angeles reporters. “I use common sense in certain situations, so I felt like maybe it was a chance. But who knows?” 

Mack said his reunion with Chargers coach Brandon Staley, who was his position coach with the Bears, took some of the sting out of the trade. “I kind of went from bittersweet to kind of excited,” he said. 

He also expressed gratitude for his time in Chicago, particularly a glorious first season in 2018 with Vic Fangio and Staley, when the Bears’ defense was the best in the NFL and Mack was runner-up to Aaron Donald for the Defensive Player of the Year Award. 

“It’s real special to me,” Mack said, “especially that first year, having all the pieces and all the coaching staff together.“

Quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s second act with the first string will be in Pittsburgh.

The Bears’ 2017 first-round pick agreed to a two-year, $14 million deal with the Steelers. Trubisky now gets an opportunity he wasn’t afforded last year — to prove he can start.

It’s the best situation Trubisky could have hoped for, offering him the stability — and the offensive skill players — the Bears never could from 2017 to 2020.

“My goal throughout free agency was to find a way to get back on the field,” Trubisky said Thursday, just minutes after his deal with the Steelers became official. “When an opportunity arose to play for coach (Mike) Tomlin and wear a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, I was so excited. Now I’m ready to roll and get to it.”

If Trubisky succeeds, he’d help prove that former coach Matt Nagy was more to blame for the Bears’ offensive struggles. For that and other reasons, Chicago will be watching.

“All you can do is continue to work for your future but draw on your past experiences to make sure the future goes better,” he said. "So that’s what I’m hoping to do.”

Patrick Finley and Mark Potash break down the Bears’ deliberate — boring? — start to free agency. LISTEN HERE.

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