Chicago Bears reportedly turned down talks of a Khalil Mack trade

The Chicago Bears were in salary cap prison this offseason. Having to deal with the first decrease in the salary cap — a significant decrease mind you — was obviously unexpected and ruined certain plans Ryan Pace and the organization had in place. Had the salary cap not gone down from over $200 million to $182.5 million, then Kyle Fuller would likely still be in a Bears uniform this season. If not Fuller, possibly Charles Leno. Let’s face it, the team could use one or both right now.

Knowing that Ryan Pace’s back was up against the wall, reports are that at least one team reached out to Pace about the possibility of trading for Khalil Mack. It turns out, that team was actually the Las Vegas Raiders. Vic Tafur of the Athletic reported that league sources made it known that Jon Gruden has regretted the trade sending Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears back in 2018. The Raiders have not had a legit pass rusher ever since the move.

Jon Gruden wanted Khalil Mack back and called the Chicago Bears about a trade

Last season, the Raiders were 29th in the league with only 21 sacks on the season. To be fair, the Chicago Bears didn’t do much better (35) even with Mack on the roster — this was good for 17th in the league. In 2019, the Bears and the Raiders were actually tied at 25th in the league with 32 sacks. 2018 was obviously a different story, but based on the last two seasons, I am surprised that Jon Gruden is that concerned about no longer having Khalil Mack.

In order to help the team after hearing that the Chicago Bears were not interested in trading Mack to the Raiders, Gruden went out and signed a new pass rusher this offseason. The Raiders signed defensive end Yannick Ngakoue to a two-year deal worth $26 million dollars. Over the last three seasons, Yannick has recorded 9.5, 8.0 and 8.0 sacks. In comparison, Khalil Mack has had 12.5, 8.5 and 9.0 sacks — not a huge difference.

When we look at pressures, there is not a huge difference there either. Ngakoue had 51 pressures in 2018, 27 in 2019 and 26 last season. Khalil Mack did have better production in two of the three years with 47 pressures in 2018, 45 in 2019 and 31 in 2020.

The big difference between these two though — money. Ngakoue has a salary cap hit this season of $21 million compared to Mack’s at only $14.6 million. However, next year this flips drastically with Khalil Mack having a salary cap hit of $30.1 million and Ngakoue only costing the Raiders $13 million.

With sources telling the Athletic that Ryan Pace and the Chicago Bears were not interested in trading Khalil Mack, one has to wonder what type of return the team could have received for the 30-year-old pass rusher. Would you have considered a move like this if you were Ryan Pace?