If you asked a couple of months ago whether anyone outside Halas Hall thought Allen Robinson would be present for veteran minicamp, you’d likely hear a lot of “no”s. Despite Robinson’s consummate professionalism, he and the Bears were making no progress on a contract extension, he was destined for a franchise tag and he was publicly very unhappy about it.
But after sitting out of voluntary OTAs, along with most of the starting defense, Robinson showed up for the mandatory minicamp instead of holding out. Again, as an outsider it may seem like a difficult decision for Robinson to use his leverage for a long-term deal or come to camp and develop a rapport with his new quarterbacks. But Robinson said it wasn’t a difficult decision at all to report on time.
“At the end of the day, it’s out of my control,” Robinson said. “It’s not what I can control. Right now, I’m just focusing on things I can control, coming back, being the best player I can be, trying to help the offense continue to improve. That’s the main focus for me right now, just controlling what I can. Helping myself to be better will help this team to be better and obviously will help us from an organizational standpoint be better than we have in the past couple of years.
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“Whatever comes from the contract standpoint, again, will come from that. That’s not totally in my control either way. Being able to control whatever I can. Not setting myself back in any way. Not forfeiting any money in any way. Those are all things that go into the fact of what I want to do and the things I want to accomplish. Not only team-wise, but personally. It’s just something that makes sense.”
For whatever it’s worth, Robinson’s attendance is noted and well-appreciated by Matt Nagy.
“It just goes to show who he is being able to show up here at mandatory camp,” Nagy said. “It shows what kind of teammate he is and what the game means to him. We know that. We understand that. We appreciate that from him. And I think that if you would ask his teammates and you would ask his coaches and you would ask the rest of our organization – support staff, personnel department and Ryan Pace – we would all agree that that doesn’t surprise us that he’s here.
“He’s just a really good person who cares a lot about winning and we appreciate that.”
NFL
The Bears and Allen Robinson have until July 15 to come to an agreement on a new contract. After that, he will be set to become a free agent again next offseason.
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