Chicago Bears: The expectations have been laid out after Khalil Mack Trade
The Chicago Bears made a stunning move by adding a defensive superstar Khalil Mack. General Manager Ryan Pace has changed expectations for 2018 season.
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace made a very bold by trading away two future first-round picks for former defensive player of the year Khalil Mack — a move you only make if you know your team is ready to contend.
The Bears have been one of the NFL’s doormats for the past several seasons. Most of that had to do with bad decisions from the top. Jerry Angelo had his glory years with this franchise before flaming out at towards the end. That might have been the last time the Bears have been in the conversation as contenders.
Phil Emery tried to stack this Bears team with talent on both sides of the ball. A combination of bad personalities and athletes that were fast but not football instinctive in the locker room were the reasons Emery has not been close to sniffing another general manager job.
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The Bears went in a different direction in 2015 with the Pace hiring. With Pace, the Bears hired a young general manager who is sensible with the aggressive moves he makes. Trading a bunch of draft capital to only move up one spot to select quarterback Mitch Trubisky. A year later, he made another aggressive move by trading away two first round picks for one league’s best (maybe the best) defensive players in Khalil Mack.
The move made for Mack puts different expectations on this season. It tells the fan base that he feels this team is ready to compete now and in the intermediate future.
It essentially tells the fan base, “The team is not in a rebuilding process. I like what I saw in training camp and we are just missing that one piece. That one piece will put us at the table with the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Rams in the NFC.”
Adding Mack to a defense that was top-10 already should only make this defense one of the more vaunted. You are no longer heavily relying on Leonard Floyd to be that dominant pass rusher, but also increase his chances of a breakout year. Aaron Lynch becomes a bit of a luxury as the third outside linebacker.
The offense won’t have much pressure on them throughout the first quarter of the season to be one of the league’s top units. The talent on this defense should be able to keep them in games and create opportunities for them to succeed earlier in the season. Once this offense finally starts to click to go along with a top defense, it can potentially be a team that will keep opposing coaching staffs up all night leading up to the game.
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This move by Pace, along with what he did the rest of this offseason, screams that this team expects to compete right now. There finally might be a light at the end of the tunnel for this franchise.