Bear Digest

Keenan Allen's Surprising Ranking Among NFL 30-Somethings

The Bears wide receiver is coming off a career-best 108 catches in L.A.,, so where does it leave him on one top-20 list of 30-year-olds?

Gene Chamberlain

Keenan Allen has had plenty of good seasons but none like last year for catches. However, it hasn't earned him much respect.
Keenan Allen has had plenty of good seasons but none like last year for catches. However, it hasn't earned him much respect. / Yannick Peterhans-USA TODAY Sports
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Youth must be served, as the saying goes.

There is still room in the NFL for old men, or at least a little bit older men.

The Bears retained a 40-something at tight end in Marcedes Lewis but chiefly for blocking purposes. However, they brought in a 30-something tight end in Gerald Everett and expect to finally have a No. 2 tight end who can contribute catches.

More is expected by the Bears from their other 30-plus addition, wide receiver Keenan Allen. It's just less seems to be expected of him by other people.

The 33rd Team's Jeff Diamond posted a story ranking the best 20 players over 30 years old heading into the 2024 season.

No Keenan Allen.

To be fair, he has Davante Adams ranked No. 14 among 30-somethings so there isn't a lot of room from No. 15 to 20 for Allen to fit. He definitely is not on par with Adams, if Diamond indeed has Adams ranked properly.

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The only other wide receivers on Diamond's list are Tyreek Hill at No. 2, Mike Evans at No. 6 and Adams. But he has defensive tackle DeForest Buckner at No. 15, Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley at 16, Chiefs guard Joe Thuney at No. 17, Browns guard Joel Bitonio at No. 18, Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert No. 19 and Ravens kicker Justin Tucker No. 20.

So a receiver coming off a career-best 108 receptions at age 31 and 1,243 yards with seven touchdowns has no place in the top 20 for 30-somethings.

If that's the case, then maybe youth doesn't really need to be served because there must be a lot of good 30-somethings to keep a receiver with 904 catches for 10,530 yards off the list.

Raheem Mostert?

Until the last two years, Mostert had only run for more than 521 yards once in his career. He had 772 yards in 2019 when the 49ers made the Super Bowl.

Definitely Mostert had good years in 2022 and 2023 but 891 yards and 1,012 yards rushing don't really correspond to 108 receptions or even 1,243 receiving yards.

And Mostert is the same age as Allen. This is supposed to be a projection of the better 30-somethings for 2024 and another year into his 30s at running back doesn't project like another year older at wide receiver. The cutoff for backs, the wall so to speak, is 30.

So in this case, Allen at least has company in being disrespected as teammate DJ Moore has never been a Pro Bowl receiver despite Pro Bowl numbers four times and especially last season.

Things like this can provide a good chip of disrespect for the shoulder of both Bears receivers heading into 2024.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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