The speculation mill may get rolling a bit, but could the Detroit Lions realistically trade for Keenan Allen?
In some way, wide receiver is a little bit of a need for the Detroit Lions in the wake of Jameson Williams’ six-game suspension to start the season. Keenan Allen would be a big fish the likes of which they aren’t likely to pursue at this point, but then we have this from Saturday night’s Los Angeles Lakers game.
That’s of course Lions wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Marvin Jones with Allen at the Lakers game against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
As I wrote on the SideLion Report Facebook page when re-posting this photo, “Just 3 California guys hanging at the Lakers game…nothing to see here….”
But we know St. Brown is not above making a sales pitch to a player on an opposing team who could be moved, and this time around he was on-site and in-person with Allen.
Allen was the subject of some trade or even cap casualty speculation early this offseason. But Chargers general manager Tom Telesco put any idea of trading him firmly to bed during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Allen’s resume is unassailable, with five career Pro Bowl selections and four 100-catch seasons. But he is getting a little bit up in age (31), and he missed what practically amounted to eight games (23 snaps in one game) with a hamstring injury last season.
Before free agency started in March, the Chargers restructured Allen’s contract to create $8.9 million in 2023 cap space.
According to Over The Cap, Allen’s cap number for 2023 is now $12.782 million with a $1.165 million base salary. A trade, before June 1, would leave the Chargers with $23.235 million in dead money this year via prorated signing bonus for the two years left on his contract. All that would travel with him to the books of a hypothetical new team is that base salary.
Allen lined up in the slot for a little over half of his snaps last season, and per Player Profiler he was top-10 among wide receivers in target separation (eighth) and top-15 (No. 13) in yards per route run. So there’s still something left in that tank.
The precise fit feels strained, with the Lions more in need of a downfield receiver to whatever level they might be in the market to add someone with experience. They have plenty of cap space to add Allen, if it were in play, so that’s not a thing.
But the Chargers did not trade Allen when they more viably could have, and they restructured his contract to where they practically can’t now unless they want to take on big dead money.
So it was a cool photo among three friends at the Lakers’ game on Saturday night. But in terms of actually leading to Allen being traded to the Lions, or even being aggressively pitched on the idea, it’s (likely) a little bit of ado about nothing.