After playing last season under the franchise tag, it seems that the Chicago Bears will not tag wide receiver Alshon Jeffery before the Wednesday deadline.
Last season, the Chicago Bears opted to use the franchise tag on former Pro Bowl wide receiver Alshon Jeffery. Doing so cost the Bears $14.599 million against the salary cap for 2016.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Dickerson, “the Chicago Bears are unlikely to use the franchise tag on wide receiver Alshon Jeffery for another season.” The Bears had until Wednesday, Feb.1 to decide if Jeffery was worth a second tag. Now it seems that he will enter 2017 NFL free agency as an unrestricted free agent.
Jeffery had been a Pro Bowler in only his second NFL season out of South Carolina in 2013. That was when Marc Trestman was the Bears head coach and the passing offense was the best it has ever been in the Windy City.
However, Jeffery has had immense difficulty staying on the field for an entire season the last three years. He has dealt with a myriad of injuries and a poorly timed four-game suspension coming in 2015. That was on the franchise tag, so it essentially knocked out of question Chicago’s willingness to offer him a long-term deal this season.
Tagging Jeffery for the 2017 NFL season would cost the Bears roughly $15.7 million. For a team that went 3-13 last year, it’s hard to imagine Bears general manager Ryan Pace to throw that kind of money at a wide receiver that will likely struggle to play all 16 games on a one-year deal.
However, the Bears seem to have whiffed on drafting their other young wideout in Kevin White. The Bears took a gamble on a former junior college player with one year of tape at West Virginia, taking White in the top-10 of the 2015 NFL Draft.
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Parting ways with Jeffery seems inevitable, but can the Bears afford to go carte blanche at wide receiver with head coach John Fox seemingly on the hot seat? Teams like the Los Angeles Rams, the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers will certainly pursue Jeffery in unrestricted free agency.