Chicago Bears: Khalil Mack’s leadership on full display in offseason

After another stellar season in 2018, Chicago Bears linebacker Khalil Mack isn’t resting on his laurels. He’s working hard this offseason so be could have an even better 2019, and that work ethic should be contagious.

The Chicago Bears had a tremendous turnaround in 2018. After finding themselves as the cellar dwellers in the NFC North over four consecutive seasons, they made it to the penthouse, winning the division. They won 12 games before being unceremoniously eliminated from the playoffs with a double doink missed field goal.

A big part of the magic of 2018 was the earth-shattering trade general manager Ryan Pace made just before the season started. He traded for Khalil Mack, one of the top defensive players in the NFL, then gave him the biggest contract ever for a defensive player.

After those moves, things changed around Halas Hall. Out went the negative attitudes and getting used to losing and in came the winning attitude. Mack became the spark to a magical season. He had a tremendous season and led the Chicago Bears defense to a dominant season. He did so despite not having an offseason to get ready.

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This year, however, Mack has an entire offseason to prepare for another great season. He isn’t resting on his laurels. He’s working as hard as ever, looking more like a rookie on the bubbles rather than the All-Pro he is.

Mack’s work ethic is sending a loud message to his teammates — what happened last year is over. Yes, there is a sense of unfinished business, but now it’s time to start over and work harder to attain the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl, as he said to the Chicago Sun-Times:

"Schematically, just getting everything in my grasp as far as understanding the defense. This is ideal. This is what you want. You want a full offseason understanding the defense. Two weeks, one and a half weeks before the first game of the year is not really prepared, in my opinion. But I tried to do my best last year. But it’s a whole new year. Hopefully it’s an even better year."

Mack sure did impress head coach Matt Nagy. To see what Mack did in 2018 coming in less than two weeks before the start of the season left a mark on him, also per the Chicago Sun-Times:

"It’s amazing if you think about it how much he affected everybody. Not just defense, but coaches, offense, everybody. Now that he’s here, you get to see that he does things by his actions. And so he continues to do that."

It’s hard to imagine how much better Mack could play in 2019. With a full offseason, however, he’s had time to study new defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano’s system. It should be a more aggressive system than previous coordinator Vic Fangio had in place so Mack may say produce historic numbers.

What Mack’s doing this offseason should spread to his teammates. They see a guy who’s already got his big-time contract and is settled in as one of, if not the best defensive player in the league. He could easily take it easy and skip the voluntary workouts, yet he’s there. They see a man who is striving to be one of the greatest of all time. Seeing how hard he works should make them work as hard.

It’s scary to think this Chicago Bears defense can be even better than last season. Behind Khalil Mack’s leadership, however, that can happen and it should bring a lot of happiness to Chicago.