It's time for the Bears to sign Allen Robinson to a contract extension 

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Allen Robinson has been a vocal opponent of the NFL’s new CBA, which only passed with 51.5 percent of the NFLPA voting in favor of it. He’s not alone, as it turns out, in thinking the deal is: 

There are legitimate flaws in the new CBA in terms of the concessions players received in light of a 17th game being added sometime in the early 2020s. But this is the deal players and teams will operate under until 2030 for better or for worse, depending on your viewpoint. 

And with the new deal in place, it’s finally time for Robinson to get that contract extension we’ve all been waiting for. 

The Bears should reward Robinson handsomely for the work he’s put in on and off the field over the last two years. His 1,147 yards in 2019 broke the NFL’s longest active streak for a team without a 1,000-yard receiver (the Bears last had one in 2014), and his lead-by-example presence is a pillar in the locker room. 

Currently, Robinson is slated for a $15 million cap hit in the final year of the contract he signed back in 2018. That’s the Bears’ second-largest cap hit in 2020, and lowering that figure should be part of the team’s motivation to aggressively work to sign Robinson, who turns 27 in August, to an extension. 

“(An extension is) obviously something we've talked about,” general manager Ryan Pace said at the NFL combine last month. “He's a good player and does a lot for our team on and off the field and he's a guy we'd like to have a Bear for a long time.”

It didn’t make much sense, though, for Robinson to sign an extension before the CBA vote. He may want to wait for impending free agent Amari Cooper to sign a contract under the new CBA’s terms to get a better idea of what the league’s top receivers will make, so he still may not need to rush to sign anything just yet. 

But the Bears and Robinson should, eventually, come to agreement that would benefit all parties involved. Robinson’s earned it, and now it’s time to get it done. 

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