System Fit Part of Allen Lazard Attraction

With Chase Claypool, Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St. Brown and Velus Jones Jr. under contract at receiver, it's entirely possible the Bears still feel the need to ensure the group's depth.

Considering the lack of production in the passing game and the team's large amount of cap space, the addition of at least one more viable, experienced receiver seems possible in free agency. Perhaps they'd even sign more than one.

The Bears have already shown they don't necessarily look for big names and receiving production. They look for system fit, as well. Jakobi Meyers, D.J. Chark, Michael Thomas, Odell Beckham Jr. and JuJu Smith-Schuster are all available, and there could be others become available due to cap cuts.

However, if system fit is the most imporant attraction for a receiver, it would be hard to argue against signing free agent Green Bay receiver Allen Lazard.

The Allen Lazard System Fit

Lazard is ranked the sixth-best free agent wide receiver by Pro Football Focus ranks him the 21st best blocker on pass plays among receivers. That's a real emphasis in this offense of Luke Getsy's.

Toss in the fact Lazard knows the offense already from his first five years in Green Bay and has worked with Getsy, and at 6-foot-5, 227 pounds, he would seem an ideal fit for the Bears offense.

Lazard is coming off a season when he had a career-high 60 receptions for 788 yards as his role expanded once Marquez Valdes-Scantling left and went to Kansas City in free agency. He had 14 touchdown catches over the last two seasons, 20 total.

There are good arguments against pursuing Lazard, as well.

Like, for one, how many receivers like this are they going to use?

Equanimeous St. Brown, the former Packer, is 6-5, 214. They traded for 6-4, 238-pound Chase Claypool. Jones is also over 200 pounds.

Couldn't they simply use a smaller slot receiver type, instead, one who catches a lot of passes. Mooney is a smaller receiver who can play any position and he rated as an excellent blocker last year, so they don't necessarily need another big receiver to block.

"He's certainly done that along with the rest of the receivers this year," coach Matt Eberflus said.

Lazard might be viewed as a better version of St. Brown. The Bears have already committed to St. Brown with a one-year extension at a modest $1.2 million.

Someone with great downfield speed would be a help, too. Lazard ran a 4.55-second 40. That's not necessarily fast in today's NFL for a receiver.

The Bottom Line

Receiver is usually one of the most expensive positions in free agency. Lazard would be about a $10 million/year contract according to PFF and $12.5 million via Spotrac.com.

With Mooney and Claypool up for contract extensions, they might consider it better to add the next receiver through the draft, because it helps keep costs down at the position.

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