After tearing his ACL at the onset of the 2017 season, Allen Robinson is ready to play football again.
On Thursday, as the Bears opened up training camp, Bears coach Matt Nagy revealed that the team will start camp without any players on the PUP list, which means that Robinson, who signed with the team in free agency is a full-go, according to Larry Mayer of the team's website. On his part, Robinson told reporters that he's "100 percent."
Mitchell Trubisky, who spent his rookie season throwing to receivers like Dontrelle Inman, Kendall Wright, and Josh Bellamy, appears to be excited about the idea of having a legitimate WR1.
Trubisky on new WR Allen Robinson. "He got healthy and he's starting to look like the old Allen Robinson. He has great hands, we know he will go up and get it." @WBBMNewsradio
— Jeff Joniak (@JeffJoniak) July 19, 2018
Robinson is just one of many offseason additions that has the Bears primed to make the leap from bad to competitive. Before tearing his ACL, Robinson caught 73 passes for 883 yards and six touchdowns in 2016. The year before, he racked up 80 receptions, 1,400 yards, and 14 touchdowns. Keep in mind, he was doing this while catching passes from Blake Bortles. His pre-ACL production was enough for the Bears to hand him a three-year, $42 million contract in free agency.
They didn't stop there. They also signed the speedy Taylor Gabriel and tight end Trey Burton, and drafted receiver Anthony Miller in the second round to complete an offensive redesign. Most important of the additions figures to be Nagy considering he got hired specifically to develop Trubisky. Nagy, who is fresh off a stint as the offensive coordinator in Kansas City, where he helped turn Alex Smith into the league's highest passer, is expected to offer Trubisky a creative scheme that is catered around his strengths, like his athleticism.
In Kansas City, Nagy had a ton of toys to play with, from Tyreek Hill to Kareem Hunt to Travis Kelce. Thanks to the work done by general manager Ryan Pace this offseason, Nagy has some fun toys to play with in Chicago. Robinson, if fully explosive after his ACL tear, should be the most important of those toys.
Muhsin Muhammad once said Chicago is "where receivers go to die." Robinson, though, appears to have been reborn there.
