(670 The Score) Bears fans everywhere recall where they were Sept. 1, 2018, when hope re-entered their football lives.
Ah, the good, ol’ day.
It was eight days before Matt Nagy’s first game as head coach. Optimism accompanied Nagy’s inaugural training camp due to his affability more than his offense, in retrospect, but a familiar cynicism also permeated every outsider prediction. History had made doubting a habit for longtime visitors to 1920 Football Drive.
Then came the stunning news that Saturday morning almost four years ago about the kind of trade the Bears never made: Former general manager Ryan Pace boldly gave two first-round draft picks to the Raiders for pass rusher Khalil Mack, one of the NFL’s top five defensive players at the time.
Chicago erupted with uncommon ecstasy. Mack’s arrival shook the status quo. And in his Bears debut at Lambeau Field, Mack raised expectations even higher with a game for the ages, returning an interception for a touchdown and creating a strip-sack-fumble in one of the greatest individual performances in team history.
How fitting that the Bears also lost that game, 24-23, to the Packers, because Mack’s tenure would end like it started – as one big tease.
Fair or not, we expected more. That one remarkable game promised more. The Bears might have won the trade with the Raiders, but they never even won a playoff game with Mack, going 0-2.
Through no fault of Mack’s, Nagy’s offense never consistently scored enough to get leads for the defense to protect. No matter how much Mack overwhelmed individually, his team underachieved. It was so Bears.
Mack did more than his part the first two seasons, playing at an elite level as the Bears defense carried an offense that was chronically too cute. At times, he was unstoppable, swatting away offensive linemen like they were gnats and harassing quarterbacks as if they had insulted his family. Before the 2019 season, the Bears ranked Mack No. 60 when they released their list of the franchise’s 100 best players ever.
But injuries marred Mack’s final two years in Chicago, limiting his production in 2020 and causing him to miss 10 games last season due to foot surgery. Availability remains an NFL player’s greatest ability, and the 31-year-old Mack no longer projected as an ascending player worth a whopping salary that averaged $23.5 million.
The new Bears front office concluded Mack never would be more valuable as an asset than he would be on his final day as a Bear, which was Thursday. In trading Mack to the Chargers for a second-round pick this year and a sixth-rounder in 2023, new Bears general manager Ryan Poles boldly but correctly chose the long-term path back to respectability. Trading Mack came as a surprise to many but less of a shock than trading for him four years ago. Whenever Mack passes his physical and Poles comments on the deal that will define his early years, this action screams rebuild no matter what his words say.
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The logic makes sense. How many more games would the Bears win in 2022 if they had kept Mack? Two? Three? Really? Objectively, neither Poles nor the most Pollyannaish fan or media member should view this Bears team as being one or two players away from the playoffs – especially not now that star quarterback Aaron Rodgers has returned to Green Bay. The Bears are closer to two or three years away than two or three players.
Critics of the trade will cite the Broncos receiving second- and third-round draft picks from the Broncos for pass rusher Von Miller in the middle of last season, but it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Broncos essentially paid for richer draft compensation by agreeing to pick up the $9 million remaining on Miller’s contract, a major difference in the two deals. Nothing reported about the Mack deal includes any suggestion the Bears will pay the Chargers any money or else the draft compensation would've increased.
Face it: This was the right time to trade the Bears’ most outstanding defensive player since Brian Urlacher. On the wrong side of 30, Mack still might be the best player on a bad roster, but he heads to southern California in decline and recovering from surgery. The move reunites Mack with Chargers coach Brandon Staley, his position coach with the Bears in 2018, and puts him opposite of All-Pro pass rusher Joey Bosa. The Chargers believe acquiring Mack counters the Broncos trading for quarterback Russell Wilson in the suddenly wild AFC West. That will be fun to watch from afar.
The Bears, meanwhile, begin their metamorphosis under Poles. The seismic change could signal a shift in emphasis in the organization, allocating resources more evenly on both sides of the football. Only three NFL teams currently have committed less money on the offensive line than the Bears do ($19 million), according to Spotrac. In comparison, for example, only five teams had allocated more than the Bears at the linebacker position ($39.2 million). In 2021, the Bears were ranked seventh in cap spending for defense and 24th on offense, according to Spotrac. Historically, Pole’s predecessor, Pace, believed in spending lavishly on defense while doing the equivalent of shopping at the thrift store for offense.
The Mack move suggest times will change.
Poles, a former offensive lineman at Boston College, already has sounded like a guy who believes in building his offense from the inside out. Trading Mack suggests he also understands how badly the Bears need to reallocate financial resources to take advantage of quarterback Justin Fields on his rookie contract as well as replenish through the draft. Getting a second-round pick in return from the Chargers gives the Bears three picks among the top 100 in an NFL draft considered deep — particularly at wide receiver. That’s appropriately putting the future ahead of the present.
It also shows a level of confidence in new coach Matt Eberflus. Any defensive-minded head coach such as Eberflus would relish the chance to plug in a pass rusher like Mack at defensive end and watch him wreak havoc. But Poles clearly believes in Eberflus’ ability to do more with less, creating an immediate opportunity for a promising player who flashed last season like Trevis Gipson. This should be an exciting offseason for young Bears players like Gipson. In contrast, this should be an unsettling one for veterans with bloated contracts.
If Poles will trade Mack before his first springtime in Chicago, who else could be next? Could 31-year-old record-setter Robert Quinn bring a similar haul of draft picks? Is safety Eddie Jackson and his $15 million salary-cap hit worth keeping or worth more to the Bears in a trade? Plenty more questions will be answered in the coming days and weeks.
Only linebacker Roquan Smith and cornerback Jaylon Johnson should feel secure about their spots in the Bears defense. And yet, for all the uncertainty on that side of the ball, the offseason emphasis appears more focused on fortifying an offense neglected for too long.
Trading Mack away confirmed that shift.
It might not have created a moment Bears fans remember forever. But it did mark a new day at Halas Hall worth filing away in your memory.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.