Allen Robinson is done. The two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver announced his retirement this week, closing out a 12-year NFL career that had more twists than any receiver of his generation deserved.
Robinson was one of the great if only players of the last decade. His prime years were spent catching passes from a rotating cast of Bears quarterbacks that no receiver should have been asked to catch passes from. Mitch Trubisky. Nick Foles. A tired Andy Dalton. He put together the kind of production that would have made him a household name on any competent offense and he did it on some of the worst offenses of the era.
His 2020 season, when he posted 1,250 receiving yards on a Bears team that could barely complete a screen pass, deserves to live in a museum. He was the entire passing game. Teams knew the ball was coming to him. He caught it anyway.
Then came the odd second half of the career. The Rams stint that never got off the ground. The Steelers year that felt like a favor. The Giants run. The public pitch to the Chiefs that never materialized. Each stop had a specific reason it did not work, but the pattern was clear. Robinson’s window as a WR1 closed, and he never quite found the right fit as a veteran WR2.
Injuries were part of it. So was the shift in what NFL offenses wanted from their receivers. Robinson was a possession receiver who thrived on contested catches and back shoulder throws. That game plays fine when it is a piece of an offense. It stopped playing as the featured skill in a league that has moved toward speed and separation.
The retirement announcement was low-key. That fits Robinson. He was never a personality guy. He never had a signature celebration. He never got into a public feud with a coordinator, even when he had every right to. He played hard, said the right things, and let the film speak.
The numbers are quietly excellent. Over 700 career catches. Nearly 9,000 receiving yards. 50 touchdowns. Two Pro Bowls. Zero playoff wins, which is not on him. Any GM who employed him would tell you he was a professional in every sense.
The Bears will honor him at some point. Jacksonville, where he broke out early in his career, should do the same. Robinson deserves a slow, appreciative farewell tour, not the quiet exit he is currently getting.
He was better than his teams for most of his career. That is the sentence that captures it.
Congratulations on the retirement, AR. Enjoy the next chapter.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
