Allen Robinson signs with Chicago Bears, leaves hole in Jacksonville

The Jacksonville Jaguars opted to spend their money elsewhere instead of re-signing Allen Robinson, leaving a massive hole at wide receiver.

Among the big news in the wee hours of Tuesday morning was the confirmation of what many had feared in Jacksonville – the loss of former Pro Bowl wide receiver Allen Robinson.

The anger/confusion further intensified when details of the contract came out:

Allen Robinson received an average of $14 million dollars a year and only $25 million fully guaranteed, a number that must have been too high for the Jacksonville front office to stomach.

Look, there are plenty of ways to rationalize how and why this went down, but it comes down to this – the Jaguars clearly didn’t value Allen Robinson as much as he thought he was worth, at least within the context of the way the Jaguars plan on playing on offense moving forward.

The team sent that message loud and clear when instead they made Andrew Norwell the richest offensive lineman in the NFL.

Still, the Jaguars need people to line up and play receiver, so they brought back Marqise Lee on a cheaper deal.

But let’s take off the teal-colored glasses for a second and look at this in a vacuum – if you had said the Jaguars were going to let Allen Robinson go after the season he had in 2015, you would’ve considered it a foolish move. After a down 2016 season and a non-existent 2017 season, letting Robinson walk seems reasonable, but the Jaguars are taking a big gamble here. Robinson absolutely has the talent to produce like a top 10 WR.

Even if the Jaguars chose to franchise him and never agreed to a long term deal, they would at least have had a proven Pro Bowl receiver on the roster.

The Jaguars are putting an awful lot of faith into two sophomore receivers (Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook), a player who quite frankly has been a disappointment (Marqise Lee), and oft-injured number 3/4 guy (Allen Hurns), and potentially a rookie or two from the draft.

The front office deserves the benefit of the doubt for now because things worked out beautifully last season, but letting Robinson walk could end up hurting the Jaguars in the long and short term.