It’s not just quarterbacks who are getting traded as we approach the start of the new league year. The Los Angeles Chargers are in the process of acquiring edge defender Khalil Mack from the Chicago Bears.
The deal
In exchange for Mack, the Bears are expected to receive a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 sixth-round pick from the Chargers.
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Why they made the move
Let’s start with the Chargers. Their defense — for the most part — stunk last year. They finished 26th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric. Upgrading their defense was going to be a priority this offseason. It was just a matter of whether they’d use free agency, the trade market, the draft or all of the above.
In Mack, they get a player who offers big upside and some risk. Mack is 31 years old and played in seven games last year. But he had six sacks and seven QB hits in those seven games. Mack has been durable throughout his career. The 2021 season was the first one in which he missed more than two games. In 2020, Mack was a 16-game starter and had nine sacks, 13 QB hits and 11 tackles for loss. He’s not just a pass-rush specialist. Mack is a complete player who will also help the Chargers’ struggling run defense.
And he won’t have to do it all himself. The Chargers still have one of the NFL’s best edge rushers in Joey Bosa (10.5 sacks, 20 QB hits last season). The pair will instantly form one of the most formidable pass-rush tandems in the entire NFL. And Brandon Staley should have a good plan for how to use Mack, having coached him in Chicago in 2018.
The Chargers play in a division where they have to face three formidable quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Derek Carr. Adding Mack gives their defense an instant upgrade.
As for the Bears, it might not seem like it, but this move makes complete sense. When Brandon Beane took over as the Buffalo Bills’ GM, his first move was to get their cap in order so that they could take a swing on Josh Allen and put pieces around him. That’s exactly the playbook the Bears should be following with Justin Fields.
By trading Mack, they clear $6.15 million in cap space this season. As Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com pointed out, by making the move this year instead of next year, they are gaining roughly $17.75 million in cap space (that’s the sum of Mack’s 2022 base salary, roster bonus and workout bonus, which the Chargers are now responsible for). The Bears are not winning the Super Bowl next season. And it was unlikely that they would have kept Mack in 2023 when he is due slightly less than $23 million at the age of 32.
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Instead of waiting a year, the Bears take their medicine now and pick up a couple draft picks, including a second rounder.
Trade grade (Chargers): B
There are a couple ways to look at Mack’s contract. One, the Chargers aren’t getting a discount. Mack is under contract for the next three years at $21.3 million per year. The only edge rushers making more than that are T.J. Watt, Bosa and Myles Garrett. Mack is three-plus years older than all of those players.
There’s a case to be made that the Chargers could have just shopped at the top of the edge rusher market in free agency and targeted someone like Chandler Jones, Von Miller or Jadeveon Clowney. Those players are unlikely to sign deals more than $20 million per year, and Los Angeles wouldn’t have had to give up draft compensation.
But what the Chargers are paying for is flexibility. Mack’s contract doesn’t contain any more guaranteed money. That means if it doesn’t work out in 2022, the Chargers are off the hook. They can release him or trade him without any further cap implications. Essentially, they’re trading for just his 2022 salary, roster bonus and workout bonus ($17.75 million) and the option to keep him beyond that. Had they signed a top edge rusher in free agency, they would not have had that same type of flexibility beyond 2022.
I am generally in favor of teams — especially those with superstar quarterbacks on rookie contracts — being aggressive. Given that Miller netted a second- and a third-round pick from the Los Angeles Rams last season, the compensation seems fair from the Chargers’ perspective. Mack is a player whom Staley knows well, he plays a premium position, and the risk is minimal. I like the move.
Trade grade (Bears): B
The Bears will get crushed by some for this move, but to me, it should actually be an encouraging sign that new GM Ryan Poles is taking a realistic view of the roster and trying to identify ways for the organization to achieve sustained success. Again, the first step is to fix their cap situation and create flexibility. Moving on from Mack helps them do that. Plus they get a second-round pick to help add young talent to a depleted roster.
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In a perfect world, the Bears would be positioned to do what the Chargers are doing: loading up to make a Super Bowl run with a quarterback on a rookie contract. And maybe that will be the case in 2023 or 2024. But right now, they have no idea how good Fields is. Poles inherited a mess, and there are no quick fixes. He needs to take a more patient, methodical approach.
You can argue that the Bears should have gotten at least what the Rams got for Miller because that was for a half-season rental. But given that Mack’s coming off of an injury, it’s not all that surprising that they didn’t get quite as much.
I hate to just sit on the fence here, but the truth is this was a reasonable move for both sides.
(Photo: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
