Aaron Donald‘s run as the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player didn’t last long, as new Bears edge rusher Khalil Mack now holds that honor. Mack has inked a six-year, $141MM extension that includes $90MM guaranteed and $60MM at signing, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Chicago sacrificed a bevy of picks to land Mack, and there was never any doubt general manager Ryan Pace would hand his new addition a fresh contract. Mack, of course, held out of Raiders’ camp in search of a new deal, and was dealt after Oakland decided an extension wasn’t in the cards.
The Bears were granted a window to extend Mack after agreeing to a trade in principle. Pace and his team then worked with Mack’s representatives throughout last night and today in order to come to an accord.
By signing after Donald, Mack was able to top the Rams defensive tackle’s $22.5MM annual average by $1MM. The Bears shouldn’t have a problem fitting in Mack’s new contract onto their books, as they rank in the top half of the league in cap space in each of the next two seasons.
Mack, 27, has been a wrecking ball since entering the league as a first-round pick in 2014. A three-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro, Mack has totaled 40.5 sacks over his first four NFL seasons. In 2017, Pro Football Focus graded Mack as the NFL’s seventh-best edge defender.
Wow!
George Halas created a legacy of cheapness that the Chicago franchise followed religiously for decades so this comes as a total shocker. On the other hand Pace owes us loyal Bear fans for the unmitigated disaster that was Mike Glennon. Let’s hope he got it right this time.
How was Glennon an unmitigated disaster? He cost the team money only and did not stop Trubisky from getting experience. Nor did Glennon cost the team wins. The team stunk last year even with Trubisky
Glennon was a 16 million dollar waste of space. Trubisky might as well have started from day one. Glennon totally bombed the FOUR games he was around for.
George Halas was no stingier than most NFL teams back in those days. NFL was not the profit machine like it is today. Also Halas won many championships so how did “cheapness” come in. Get a clue.
I know the family relation, but the Bears stingy nature can be tied directly to the McCaskey clowns that were running the organization most recently. They cared more about turning a profit than putting a quality team on the field. Hopefully the last couple years and their spending this offseason is a sign of a re-commitment to winning football.
Reason 20 why the Bears will continue to suck.
Yeah because HOF type DEs are a dime a dozen
Oh you Raider fans will keep crying for years
What are the first 19?
Get a grip. And a life.
This Boi probably a Raiders fan that can get over this trade.
That’s a lot of money for a player not named Aaron Rodgers, but good on the Bears for getting him. Should be a fun and interesting battle in the NFC North. Vikings and Packers are loaded up for a run, Bears should have a really good defense. Not sure what to make of Detroit.
BOOM! It’s official! Gonna be a lot of fun watching this beast play for the next 6 years or so as he enters his prime.
Hey Mr. Bandwagon Fan! This is such an old story, shouldn’t you be on the Cubs chats
and telling everyone how big a fan you are of that great team ? LMFAO! #CUBSSUX
LOVE that contract structure. 90 mil guaranteed, 60 of that at signing. The Bears have PLENTY of cap space due to Trubisky’s cheap rookie contract. By the time the Bears need the money, most of the guaranteed money for Mack will already be paid. Pleasantly surprised by the Bears stepping up and making this move. So excited to see Mack play as he enters his prime. HUGE get for the Bears!
Then he will hold out for a new extension for more guarantied money.
when he holds out for more guaranteed it should lower his AAV and give the Bears some cap relief
So if the Bears start to win this year , will you change your name to Mack2018
and suddenly claim that you’re a lifelong Bears fan too?
Raiders are still a mess but it became a little more understandable why they had to deal him. Just a little
McKenzie: It’s official now John, I got rid of Khalil Mack for you.
Gruden: When did I tell you to do that Reg?
McKenzie: You said we couldn’t afford a Khalil Mack.
Gruden: At dinner I said we couldn’t afford a Big Mac.
McKenzie: Oh snap! We better eat at Burger King from now on.
With the other picks involved this deal is even worse than it seems. Basically the Raiders receive next year’s first round pick and a third round pick in 2020. The first round pick in 2020 is offset by having to get up their second round pick. The Bears pick could be in the 20’s and the Raiders will likely be picking early in the second so the Bears pick gets pushed back 10 to 15 selections but they still get a player of starter quality. Terrible deal.
Next years pick will still be top 10. The bears still suck on the other side of the ball. Have to score to actually beat anyone and they have the worst offense in the Norris and it isn’t close.
There offense is greatly improved since last year. Defense kept quite a few teams under 20 and lost. Those are wins this year. At least they didn’t pay big money for a coach who has long history of making bad personnel decisions.
This dude steven sure sounds salty doesnt he? Did gruden sleep with your mom? Chill bro
The Bears added playmakers all over the offense. I can see them being a top offense next year to go with what was a top ten defense BEFORE acquiring Mack.
One guy on defense isnt worth that money. Good job Oakland
He is when he makes everybody else better. Now you have zero pass rushers and players who know they will never get paid by a head coach who has a long history of making bad personnel decisions. Your teams defense is going to really suck this year. KC,SD and Denver are going to eat them for lunch. Would have anyways, but there’s no longer any defensive player to worry about at all.
Might wanna slow down there skip, mack was a good player no doubt but not impactful, still one of the worse defenses even with him on the field. Shelling out that much for not that much improvement is ludicris. Outside of qb everything is replaceable. Last time i checked raiders have a better mvp caliber qb what do bears have? Trubisky is garbage and will be highlighted this year when everything around him has inproved and he is nothing more than a system qb that doesnt get his team to the playoffs.
Carr a MVP candidate holy Raidrside Batman. Trubisky was much higher rated coming out then Carr and he spent last year with the single worst head coach/ o.c. Combo in history. Carr was so great last year that he helped the Raiders finish last. Great QBs can overcome bad defenses alas Carr is incapable of doing that. Can’t wait to see him lead them to 2-3 wins this year.
Mack won Defensive player of the year. I guess they give that to run of the mill non-impactful players. When your team is run by the single cheapest owner in professional sports and you wonder why they suck.
“mack was a good player no doubt but not impactful”
That may be the dumbest thing I’ve read tonight. Good work.
Also not sure how a guy that threw 22 touchdowns and 13 picks last year is “MVP caliber.” Keep going though. You’re killing it.
Playing with an injuried back all year and teammates that didnt like that he didnt stop saluting the flag further support that he played well despite adverstiy. Year before dude was candiate for mvp right there behind ryan. You guys might want to think before you comment and act tough lol
“Mindless” fits you to a T, dill weed. Trubisky will be much better this year for no other reason than he will have some legit weapons around him and a new offense. Now, go back to sleep.
Bears fans destined to come in 3 or last place and desperate to think they will make playoffs. If you think trubisky is the answer I cant wait for the year to start and you guys lay an egg. Bears havent been relevant in about 40 years? Thats why raiders d consistently ranked 22 and below all years mack was with them. So shelling out 25 million for a dude who hasnt made the defense “improve” to top 10 you get controllable assests and try to rebuild on the fly. Funny how all you keyboard gms think one guy not named tom brady or aaron rodgers will change your outlook. Your team still is bad when both 1st rounders are top 10 this will confirm that thought.
Mack was the best pass rusher the Faiders had since Long. They haven’t been relevant for a lot longer then 40 years and the Bears didn’t pay out for a coach who knows even less football then your sister. Carr is not a MVP QB. He did a great job last year. Woo-hoo-how. You need more players then 1 to make a defense great and now the Raiders don’t even have a single player on the defense. The Bears defense was a top 10 unit last year and now they have fixed their biggest hole. You don’t improve by releasing or trading your bonafide stud for a couple of draft picks especially when your head coach has never actually hit on a single one of them. Trubisky was the highest rated qb in the draft last year and was either rated as high as Winston or Rodgers by most scouts/gyms. I’ll take their word over a punk sissy boy speaking words on the internet.
Where you at? See your boy choke? Also raiders made it to a superbowl in 2002 you living under a rock?
Bravely written, anonymous boy. And when the Bears are better this year (and only a hater would deny it), you’ll be 100 miles from these comment boards, trolling somewhere else.
So if he makes everyone better. Why didn’t Raiders have #1 defense?
Because they don’t have the money resources to actually improve it. He won the defensive player of the year and is the single best pass rusher in the game. Good luck blocking Floyd and Hicks. Kind of hard to constantly double team multiple players on a front. It’s easier to do when there literally is nothing else on the Raiders to actually care about blocking.
Your arguement kind collapsed on it self skip. Above your claiming that mack is a transcedent player whos sheer presence impacts the defense now your saying they cant afford to improve, so why resign a guy when they are apparently to poor to afford a better defense? Seriously bro kid you need to think before you comment. Ditka and jordan are in the past man move on.
So is Howie. The silver and black haven’t been relevant since 1982 just like football in LA La land. Davis is the single cheapest owner in pro sports.
Well Rumcoke if he makes everyone better does that mean they must have the number 1 defense?? So I guess only one player in the entire NFL can make the defense better since only one team can have the number one defense in the NFL
So are the bears allowed to talk to Mack before the trade and ask if he’d sign an extension? Because all of this happened fast
Yes I believe they did but it was not hard to do fast. The Donald contract yesterday made it a no brainer. I bet it took less than 30 min to agree on the overall number. Longer to decide how to structure it
I am sure they had a window before making it official. You wouldn’t make the trade unless you didn’t have at least the framework of a contract.
Yes. In fact the trade was contingent on coming to terms not just a framework
3rd place in divison calling it right now. Im sure steve and jkb will be found in there moms basements when they start 0-3 and try to trade for a back up qb because mitch isnt good
Third place is one place higher then the Faiders will finish with that bum Carr at QB.
What are you basing your opinion on? Your just a keyboard loser upset because your Best buddy just traded away their best defensive player in almost 40 years away.
So far steven looks like he has zero football sense. So far raiders d looks better without make and they get two controllable assets. And trubisky showed who he really is a game manager choke artist.
Congrats on holding the Rams to 33 points with help from the $25,000,000 interception king.
this trade isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. As a Bears fan I’m used to seeing them seemingly always giving up way to much for what they get in return. not this time. Giving up 2 draft picks in 2019 and moving down a few spots with two more draft picks in 2020 while getting a potential HOF DE….. I’ll take that all day. it’s not like the bears are known to be a great first round drafting team anyways, haha.
also, as a much bigger baseball fan I always laugh a little when NFL analysts and fans freak out over “big” or “insane” contracts. $23.5m over 6 years for a HOF quality defensive player sounds so cheap to me, haha. then again I’m a cubs fan and am watching them pay Yu Darvish $21M AAV for 6 years and that dude has barely played this year. I also find it weird MLB’s luxury tax threshold (defacto salary cap) is higher than the NFL’s salary cap. it’s crazy to me how cheap the nfl is when it comes to paying their players. also makes me wonder why young athletes keep playing football instead of baseball. not only is baseball insanely easier on the body and the average career longer but it is waaaaay more lucrative as well. I digress.