Tyrique Stevenson said the name “Keenan” and then bowed his head. The second-year Chicago Bears cornerback let out a resigned sigh and laugh.

It was Aug. 20, and that meant the Bears secondary had been finding out for the previous month what so many cornerbacks since 2013 learned the hard way: Trying to stop Keenan Allen can be a maddening experience.

“If you play him too close, he’s good enough to make that incredible catch,” Stevenson said. “So you have to give him space to see which way he’s going. If you sell on a route too hard, he can take it back the other way. And if you play him low, he’s definitely taking it over the top.

“So it’s just figuring out how to take him out of his groove. His ability to create separation when he needs to is second to none.”

“Crafty.” “Intricate.” “Unpredictable.” “Fascinating to watch.” “Like painting the edges on Picasso.”

That’s how Allen’s Bears teammates and coaches describe his style of play. They’re not new revelations.

Allen used his skills and knowledge to rack up six 1,000-yard receiving seasons and six Pro Bowl berths during 11 years with the Chargers in San Diego and Los Angeles. He had a career-high 108 catches for 1,243 yards and seven touchdowns at age 31 in 2023. He has long been known as one of the best route runners in the game.

But so much about this situation is new.

New for the Bears, whose all-time receiving leader, Johnny Morris (1958-67), totaled less than half of Allen’s 10,530 career yards. New for Chicago, an offense-starved city that now has Allen, DJ Moore and Rome Odunze set to catch passes from Caleb Williams.

And new for Allen, who had known only one organization his entire NFL career and suddenly is playing in a contract year with a different team.

Allen plays it close to the vest when it comes to his emotions about the Chargers offloading his $23.1 million salary-cap hit in March in exchange for the Bears’ 2024 fourth-round draft pick. It’s a business, he reiterated. It happens. But he’ll admit the contract situation drives him.

“It’s just one of those go-get-her seasons,” Allen told the Tribune. “You’ve got to go make the things happen in order to solidify a contract extension. At this point, it’s contract time, so that’s usually when it’s time to really buckle down and get to it.”

That hasn’t been a problem for Allen — when he’s healthy. He missed 11 games over the last two seasons with hamstring and heel injuries, and he’s currently dealing with foot discomfort from a cleats issue that kept him out of the last four practices, according to general manager Ryan Poles.

Poles said Wednesday that he believes Allen should be fine as the Bears head toward the season opener Sept. 8 against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field. And if he’s fine, the 32-year-old Allen expects his production to continue — and hopes that in turn translates to winning.

‘Mind manipulation’

The Bears were grinding through a two-hour-plus, late-August training camp practice, one of those sessions four weeks in when short tempers and scarce motivation would be understandable.

Then there was Allen, making play after play for Williams. Second-year wide receiver Tyler Scott estimated Allen had “like 15 catches, probably like 300 yards on the defense.”

“This dude goes out and he’s routing the first defense up,” Scott said. “It was like they couldn’t guard him. Just watching him, all the different route combinations, the way he would just get open. But it’s just the fact that he would be locked in for that long, to continue to just get open against a defense that sees a lot of our stuff every single day, a lot of our concepts.”

The showing was a testament to Allen’s work ethic, Scott said, that in training camp No. 12 he still was driven to gut through such a practice. And, of course, it was an example of what makes Allen special.

Ask Bears players and coaches the most impressive thing about the 6-foot-2, 211-pound Allen, and they’ll give you a dozen things he does better than most.

“He’s not the fastest guy in the world, but he’s just really good with his change of pace,” Scott said. “The way he uses sudden quickness, change of tempo at the line, in the route. The way he sets different routes up, mirrors them up with different motions and concepts. He’s able to make everything feel and look the same when needed.

“Sometimes I look and I’m like: ‘Man, how do you even think to do that? Wow, that was creative.’”

Allen called those skills “mind manipulation,” the ability to make a defender move how he wants him to. He described it as a performance of body movements to throw off a cornerback from where he’s going.

“Making him think he sees something that’s really not there, just setting him up through the course of the game,” Allen said. “You have those moments where your body just takes over because you did it so many times. It’s being quick twitchy, and everything is in unison.

“So when you’re making moves, the bottom part of the body is matching up with the head and the shoulders. So it all looks like what it looks like on film to him, but it’s an illusion at the end of the day. You’re creating a presentation for him to think (you’re doing) something else.”

Allen said he always had the shiftiness, the ability to juke defenders, since he was a young player growing up in North Carolina and then in college at California.

But he developed the craft — and the knowledge needed for it — over time, starting with his rookie season in 2013.

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was an offensive quality control coach in Allen’s first year with the Chargers and later the quarterbacks and receivers coach. Allen said they studied film “day in and day out” of the great receivers, trying to understand how they run routes and attack leverage.

Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen, another former Chargers assistant, also helped Allen learn the big picture.

“Once we have an understanding why everybody is doing everything they’re doing, you know how to set up your route cleaner,” Allen said. “You know when you are in the progression, you know what the quarterback is doing. You know his steps and timing, so just being able to hear it from that side of the perception (helped).”

Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers — “the smartest guy on the field,” Allen said — demanded he be on his P’s and Q’s, talking through what would work and what wouldn’t against certain defenses while also allowing for Allen’s creativity.

All of those experiences, conversations and film sessions helped shape Keenan Allen, the Craftsman.

“He’s a super hard worker, and I think people lose track of that,” Bears wide receivers coach Chris Beatty said. “Because he’s not super gifted athletically. I mean, he’s gifted, don’t get me wrong. But he’s not elite. … But he works so hard at it that the game has transformed to really slow to him.”

Allen played with Rivers for seven seasons — two of them disrupted by injury — and totaled 524 catches for 6,405 yards and 34 touchdowns. When the Chargers turned to rookie Justin Herbert in 2020, Allen continued to produce.

The Bears’ expectation when they made the trade was that he will do the same with Williams — even in a more crowded wide receivers room, even though Allen has another year of tread on his twitchy legs.

A career-best season

Until he was recently sidelined with the foot issue, Allen was pitted all through training camp against a Bears secondary full of players seven and eight years younger than him. He more often got the better of Stevenson than Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson, but either way he made plenty of big plays.

Allen believes his game lends itself to longevity, and he hasn’t had to change much about the way he plays as he gets older.

“The craftiness. It’s not really based on speed,” Allen said. “Most guys use their speed. I’ve lost a little bit of step, but you still get the savviness. You still know the leverages, the coverages, so you’re able to get to some spots.”

Allen proved that last year in a career-best season over just 13 games before his heel injury, though he pointed out part of the production was a matter of circumstance.

Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams tore an ACL in Week 3. Wide receiver Joshua Palmer missed six games in November and December with a knee sprain. So Herbert’s primary option was Allen, who noted it also padded his stats that the Chargers were losing and throwing the ball more.

But Herbert and Allen also were beautifully in sync much of the time before both went down with injuries in December.

“It would have been great to see the finished product of the last four games,” Allen said.

It’s notable that two of Allen’s three best career games in receiving yards came last season against NFC North teams: a Chargers-record 18 catches for 215 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown reception, on Sept. 24 against the Minnesota Vikings and 11 catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns on Nov. 12 against the Detroit Lions.

Allen modestly noted it’s easier to have such success against non-division teams because the players aren’t as familiar with his tendencies.

But Beatty pointed to the Vikings game — which former Chargers coach Brandon Staley dubbed a “maestro performance” — as an example of the mental edge Allen asserts over defenders.

Beatty likened it to trying to see through windshield wipers. Most receivers have the wipers flying, trying to take in everything happening on the field around them. For Allen, it’s slow. He can see things before they uncover.

“He could see everything (against the Vikings),” Beatty said. “The game is really slow for him. He can adjust to different coverages, adjust to their adjustments. … Everybody knew where the ball was going, but he was able to adjust on the fly. Early first half, he won a certain way, and then second half, he won a different way.”

Allen’s big season helped him hit 10,000 receiving yards for his career, and now he’s eyeing 1,000 catches. He’s 96 away from that milestone, which if he accomplished this year would be his seventh-best season total. In a crowded receivers room, he would have to stay healthy to get close to it.

When he was in Los Angeles, Allen made it known he wanted to go after Chargers tight end Antonio Gates’ franchise records of 955 catches and 11,841 receiving yards.

“It’s kind of off the board, now, huh?” Allen said in August. “But a new one came up now.”

He might not have to change his game yet, but the 2024 season is requiring some adjustments.

Unfamiliar place

Beatty called it “nervous.” Allen called it “a little out of my comfort zone.”

Either one would make sense given Allen’s situation. After 11 years with the Chargers, he’s trying to make his home — however temporary — with the Bears.

Allen pointed to small alterations that have been hard, like how the schedule is off a little bit so his rhythm changes.

“It’s not what you’re used to,” he said. “You’re around different guys. It’s not really your locker room. It’s somebody else’s locker room, and you’re just added to it. So you’ve got to kind of find your way and make sure you’re being the same guy that you were.”

Allen said he’s getting better at it, and he’s already creating fans among his teammates.

Scott, who is known for his speed, said he’s trying to learn from Allen’s ability to change pace. Odunze said he’s fascinated by Allen’s ability to cut on his inside and outside foot and maintain his balance every time. And Williams bonded with Allen during veteran minicamp in June over playing cards and learning plays.

“Everyone is always picking at him to try to get some of his knowledge, and he’s sharing in that,” Beatty said. “He does a lot of things that people don’t see behind the scenes.”

Bears tight end Gerald Everett played with Allen the last two seasons with the Chargers, and he called Allen’s commitment to his craft and attention to detail, even when it comes to run blocking, “infectious.”

“Just being reliable,” Everett said. “No matter what game or plan or weather condition or crowd. … It hasn’t stopped yet, so I don’t think it will stop anytime soon.”

Allen has a big family and many interests away from football, including music. He plays piano and sang on “The Masked Singer” last spring. But he said he still has motivation to keep charging ahead on the field, beyond the money potentially at stake.

“What drives me now is just keep going,” Allen said. “You’ve made it this far. You did all these things. There’s no reason to stop, especially if you feel good. … Try to make the best of it, try to create more opportunities with your play and with being on the field. The stats will come, championships, playoff games.”

Allen has played in five playoff games but never beyond the divisional round.

So it’s winning that he’s after?

“Yeah,” he said. “Mmm-hmm.”

A more intricate explanation isn’t needed.