Chicago Bears fans are mad at me. I get it. They’ve been mad at me since I wrote that Mitchell Trubisky was a guaranteed bust. I was right. Your anger is displaced when it should be directed at Ryan Pace. The dope who traded up for Trubisky in the first place. While we now know the Trubisky picked was a failed pick by Pace, there was another move that Pace made that needs more attention. While Khalil Mack has been a monster for Chicago, trading for him was a mistake. It’s not because Mack isn’t a great player. It’s because Chicago pushed their chips to the center of the table when they never had a franchise quarterback. Actually, I should clarify that. They pushed their chips to the center with the worst starting quarterback in football.
I said it at the time of the trade. Let’s stop pretending like the Bears stole Khalil Mack. Actually, it’s looking like more and more that the Raiders won the deal. Josh Jacobs has really carried Oakland’s offense. Now the Raiders are going to get a pretty high Bears pick. Chicago is screwed until they move off Mitch Trubisky. They also have no draft capital after making the Mack trade. Double doink… I mean loser. If the Bears want to draft a quarterback, moving on from Khalil Mack feels like the only way to do so.
You can recoup first round picks for Mack. Probably more too. Chicago can go draft the quarterback they want. Then the Bears can draft a pass rusher in the 2nd or 3rd round. The Bears defense is awesome with or without Khalil Mack. In reality, the Bears almost have no choice but to move Mack next year. Here are your options because we know having Mitch Trubisky under center isn’t an option. A: sign a Cam Newton or Teddy Bridgewater in free agency. B: Draft a quarterback. Right now Chicago has no viable cap space or draft capital to do either.
Over the cap projects the Bears to have around -$4 million in cap space next year. Negative cap space. Financially, you can’t even move the Mack contract without eating dead money. A trade could work but the new team would have to be willing to take on money they don’t have to. Maybe you get less than you otherwise would have. Cutting Allen Robinson and Leonard Floyd only get you so far. I’m skeptical the Bears can even afford a free agent quarterback. Nobody else on the Bears roster is netting you a first round pick except Roquan Smith and he’s more untouchable than Mack is. The only other option is praying a quarterback falls to the 2nd round that you like or giving up the farm of draft picks.
I guess at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter. Ryan Pace won’t pick the right guy anyway. I’m sure he probably thinks Kellen Mond is the next great quarterback. Regardless, if Chicago wants to find another quarterback, moving Khalil Mack feels like one of the only options.
