Bears WR Target: Kenny Golladay |
It has been widely reported that the New York Giants will be releasing their receiver Kenny Golladay on the first day of free agency. Chicago needs some receivers to help quarterback Justin Fields. But, is Golladay somebody worth pursuing?
Golladay spent his first four years in the NFL playing for the Detroit Lions, going to the Pro Bowl in 2019. He was only able to start four games this season, playing in 12 total, due to injuries. Overall through his career, he has 226 receptions for 3,670. His best two seasons were in 2018 and 2019 when he went over 1,000 yards receiving. In Golladay’s last season with the Giants, he only had six receptions. With these stats, he seems rather overpaid with a base salary of over $13 million. Thus, it would seem that Golladay is not someone that is a fit for Chicago with such a large price tag. Conversely, given his performance last season, if he is picked up by another team he will not be receiving a salary that is anywhere close to that high. Golladay is a talented receiver; he just never seemed to be able to find his footing in New York. He’s originally from Chicago, spending his whole life in the Midwest until going to the Giants. Perhaps he is just a better fit being where he is familiar with in Illinois. In addition to taking a spot on a talented receiver for a low price because of his lack of production, he would bring some experience to the wide receiver group. Chicago has one of the youngest teams in the NFL right now, and bringing in an experienced veteran is not a bad idea. He’s also a young player at only 29; while he has the experience beyond what other receivers on the Bears have, Golladay is not even 30 and thus has a good amount of years left in his career to be able to make an impact on Chicago. Another factor that should be considered is the NFL Draft. The Draft does not have as deep of a receiving core as they have in the past. Therefore, it would be better for the Bears to address this issue more in free agency than in the Draft. Other free agent receivers are also expensive; the wide receiver market really increased with the contracts given to Davante Adams on the Las Vegas Raiders and Tyreek Hill on the Miami Dolphins. Other receivers that are currently set to be available in free agency are Robert Woods, Nelson Agholor, DJ Chark and Julio Jones. With the exception of Chark, all of these players are older than Golladay. Chark would probably be more expensive than Golladay, however, because he had a better year this past season. He earned a total of $10 million from the Lions, primarily because of a $8.965 million-dollar signing bonus. Like Golladay, the last time he was in the Pro Bowl was 2019. Thus, both players should be considerations for Chicago to address their wide receiver situation.
