The Bears’ decision to trade Khalil Mack was the right one. The problem is they still haven’t found his replacement.
In three awe-inspiring hours earlier this month, the Chargers edge rusher had six sacks against the Raiders, one off the NFL record and 1½ more than every Bears edge rusher has combined this season.
Since the start of last season, Bears edge rushers have totaled 11 sacks. Mack has 15 — nine have come in two games.
“He’s good at everything,” rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent said. “He’s strong, stout, a good pass rusher. He’s just not lacking a whole lot in anything.”
Mack’s trajectory, though, is no more aligned with the Bears’ timeline than it was when general manager Ryan Poles traded him in March 2022 for a second-round pick he turned into safety Jaquan Brisker and a 2023 sixth-rounder he’d trade again. Knowing their short-term prospects were dim, the rebuilding Bears ate the $24 million in dead salary-cap space to move Mack.
Mack is 30, and the monster contract extension he signed with the Bears expires at the end of next season. If Mack stayed with the Bears, he would have spent this season and last playing mostly meaningless games. The Bears are 5-19 during that span; Mack, who was named to the Pro Bowl last year, wouldn’t have catapulted that record to anything close to playoff contention.
On Sunday, the Bears are what stand between the 2-4 Chargers and another loss in an increasingly alarming season. Mack said he was looking forward to reuniting with the few players who remain on the Bears from his tenure, listing safety Eddie Jackson, cornerback Jaylon Johnson, receiver Darnell Mooney and quarterback Justin Fields. Fields won’t play, though, and Jackson might not, either.
“Those are my little brothers, man,” Mack told Chargers reporters Thursday. “It is always good to see them. But we got a job to do Sunday, and that’s to win the ballgame.”
His impact with the Chargers has been muted only compared to the outsized expectations many around the NFL had for his career. Six years ago last month, the Bears traded for Mack and gave him a $141 million extension, a record for a defensive player.
Mack ranks eighth in the NFL with 51 sacks since 2018. Only T.J. Watt has forced more fumbles than Mack’s 18, and only six defensive players have more fumble recoveries than his eight.
He has yet to win a playoff game, though, losing one with the Raiders, two with the Bears and one last year with the Chargers.
Still, players like Mack simply don’t get traded. Of the seven players ahead of him on the sacks list, only one, Matthew Judon, has played for more than one team.
Mack is best at the position where the Bears are worst. They were last in the NFL in sacks last season — their leader was Brisker, a safety. The Bears’ moderate upgrades to their edge-rusher spot this offseason — signing Yannick Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker — have inched them up to second-to-last in sacks.
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has been worrying about Mack for a decade. As the receivers coach at Western Michigan, Getsy watched Mack record a sack, forced fumble and pass breakup in a 33-0 blowout of the Broncos in 2013.
The next spring, the Raiders made the Buffalo star the fifth pick in the 2014 draft.
“He’s been terrorizing me since I was a coach at Western Michigan,” Getsy said. “You have to account for him at all times. Run game. Pass game. That’s what’s really unique about him.”
Here’s another reason to worry: Mack’s six sacks Oct. 1 against Raiders rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell were against a team he played for that traded him years ago.
The Bears qualify as the same Sunday.
“Emotions or not,” Mack said, “you got a job to do.”
