The NFL’s active sack leader is on the move to Carolina, with Chicago footing the bill.
The trade of Jared Allen from the Bears to the Panthers is the typical move of an aging veteran going from a bad team to a playoff contender, but with a twist: The bad team absorbed almost all of his pay before sending him packing.
The Bears paid Allen more than $14.6 million during his year and a half with the team. Most of that came in the form of an $11.5 million roster bonus he received in March. All the Panthers will pay him for the rest of this year is a little over $800,000, which is the remainder of his $1 million base salary.
At age 33, Allen is nowhere near the player he was as a four-time first-team All-Pro earlier in his career. He has 134 sacks in his career but had a career-low 5.5 last year and has none this year. But if Allen can prove to be a better fit in Carolina than he was in Chicago, he’s a bargain. The Panthers are getting Allen on the cheap.