Khalil Mack: Winners and losers from trade to Chicago Bears
Khalil Mack has been traded to the Chicago Bears by the Oakland Raiders, but who are the winners and losers from this deal?
Talk about blockbusters. As teams around the NFL are trimming their rosters down to 53 players, the Chicago Bears pulled off a stunning move on Saturday morning. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Bears will send two first-round picks and possibly more to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for superstar edge rusher Khalil Mack.
There’s no doubt that this trade shakes up things for both parties involved. However, whenever a player of Mack’s caliber is traded — which is an exceedingly rare thing in the NFL — the ripple effects are felt by more than just the two teams involved in the deal.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Bears, Raiders and the other winners and losers from the Khalil Mack trade.
Winner: The Chicago Bears
Yes, I know that the Bears are giving up two first-round picks to acquire him. However, this is a move that you want a team in their position to make. They appear to be and they believe they are a team on the precipice of breaking out. With offseason moves to drastically improve the offense, they made strides in that regard. Now they add a superstar to an already much-improved defense as well.
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Even if they are giving up two first-rounders, it’s clear that general manager Ryan Pace is going for it. That may not result in a Super Bowl right away. However, it does present the right type of message for the culture in the Windy City. And, of course, they now have a core in place that will make them fearsome for years to come.
Loser: The Oakland Raiders
Why?
That’s the question that the Raiders and their fans are asking in unison and with repetition on Saturday morning. While getting what they wanted in a trade for Mack is great, and having two first-round picks is amazing too, the deal still seems nonsensical. Yes, he wanted a lot of money in a new contract. Here’s the thing, though: he deserves a lot of money.
Mack has established himself as one of the league’s premier talents off the edge. Getting to the quarterback, stuffing the run, opening up the rest of the defense, he does it all. While the Raiders defense has been lackluster even with him, he has somewhat single-handedly kept them from being an absolute dumpster fire. Now, they don’t have him.
This appears to be a serious miscalculation on the part of Jon Gruden and the Raiders. Even the draft picks, which are always a guessing game no matter how much scouting and evaluation is done, only offer so much solace. They just traded away one of the best players in the league while he’s entering his prime. That’s bad, no matter how you slice it.
Loser: NFC North quarterbacks not named Trubisky
Heading into 2018, you could make the argument that no division is as talented throughout at the quarterback position than the NFC North. The Green Bay Packers have Aaron Rodgers, the Minnesota Vikings signed Kirk Cousins this offseason, and the Detroit Lions have Matthew Stafford. And now all three of those guys lives just got much more difficult.
Mack alone is going to put pressure on each of those guys when they face the Bears twice every season. However, if Chicago can also keep Leonard Floyd healthy, that gives this team a pass-rushing duo that could potentially be one of the best in the NFL. So, while the talent is still obvious in this division, the Bears just made their success much harder to come by whenever they play Chicago.
Winner: Khalil Mack
This might seem simple, but it’s the truth of the situation. Khalil Mack emerges from this a winner in two regards. First, he’s going to get the money he desires and has earned. According to Rapoport, the Bears will sign him to a deal that will eclipse Aaron Donald’s massive new extension. Perhaps more importantly though, he’s now with a team that clearly values him as he should be given the price Chicago was willing to pay to trade for him.
All in all, it puts Mack in a much better environment and overall situation.
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Loser: The Packers and Jets
Let’s be honest, there’s no team in the NFL that wouldn’t have a use for Khalil Mack (yes, that includes the Raiders, despite trading him away). However, perhaps the two best fits for the edge defender in terms of a potential trade seemed to be the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets.
Both the Packers and Jets have serious needs in terms of improving their pass-rush moving forward. However, they were also both unable to get the deal done as the Bears were. This is worse for the Packers as they will now have to face Mack twice every season for the foreseeable future, but it’s still bad for the Jets as well as their edge rush continues to be sorely lacking.