Winners, losers from Raiders-Bears Khalil Mack trade
The Raiders’ stunning trade Saturday morning that sent star pass-rusher Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears led to a three-word reaction from Bruce Irvin.
“No (expletive) way,” the Raiders’ defensive end tweeted.
Yes, way.
The unimaginable has reportedly happened, and now the Raiders and Bears are forever linked in this uncommon trade that saw arguably the league’s best edge rusher shipped to the Midwest.
The Raiders will reportedly get two first-round picks and Mack is expected to become the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL, a day after Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald set the market with a six-year extension worth $135 million.
As the smoke clears, here’s a look at the potential aftermath from this historic deal:
Winners
Bears: Coach Matt Nagy, general manger Ryan Pace, Bears players and Chicago fans are the obvious winners. The franchise gets an elite pass-rusher in his prime at age 27 to lead a Bears defense that was already stacked in the front seven. Mack will join Leonard Floyd, Danny Trevathan and rookie Roquan Smith. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio now has all the ingredients needed to replicate what he did with the San Francisco 49ers when Aldon Smith, Justin Smith, NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis were winning games for the Niners.
Jon Gruden: Hold on, hold on. Yes, the Raiders coach deserves criticism (See below). But this is a rare win-win for both teams. Here’s what teams covet the most: Quarterbacks, pass-rushers and first-round picks. It’s debatable in what order. All three are very valuable and the Raiders now have two first-round picks in the next two drafts to rebuild a defense that was already bad with Mack (A famous line Gruden said at the start of training camp). Teams often don’t give up first-round picks anymore. The Cowboys’ heist for trading Herschel Walker to the Vikings changed the game. The Cowboys turned those picks into three Super Bowls in the ’90s. Not saying the Raiders will get that outcome, but gives them a chance to start over after striking out in the draft the past three years. It’s up to Gruden and his staff to hit on picks in the next two years.
Raiders’ rookie defensive linemen: Gruden’s first draft class in a decade still hasn’t played a regular season game, but there’s a lot of excitement around the trio of Arden Key, P.J. Hall and Maurice Hurst. The rookies’ stellar play in the preseason could have given Gruden the confidence to pull the trigger on the Mack trade. It’s up to them to make their coach look good. Every player wants to play right away, and if Mack was still on the team along with Irvin, that meant less snaps for Key. He probably now moves up into a starting role.
Losers
Gruden: The “Chucky is back” honeymoon phase is over. He’s no longer the funny guy from the “Monday Night Football” broadcast. This is Gruden as a coach. He’ll praise a player one day, then cut him the next. It’s hard to fathom how much Gruden’s popularity changed in a span of eight months. A majority of Raider Nation is furious with Gruden after he traded their beloved star player. But Gruden could care less about pleasing people. His legacy is on the line now. The outcome of the trade will dictate the conversation of his coaching credentials. This move could potentially set the franchise back a decade if it fails, similar to when the Raiders traded Gruden to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two first-round picks in 2002. The team never really recovered until 2014 when it drafted Mack and quarterback Derek Carr.
Paul Guenther: The Raiders’ defensive coordinator never got the chance to coach Mack. Guenther was around Pro Bowl defensive players in his four seasons as defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals, but they weren’t transcendent players like Mack. It wasn’t easy for Guenther to leave Cincinnati, a place he called home for 13 seasons. Did he expect this trade to happen when he committed to Gruden and the Raiders?
“When (Mack) comes in here, I’ll have a plan to get him off some of those double teams and get him loose on the quarterback even more,” Guenther said in August.
Las Vegas/Oakland: It was an assumption Mack would be playing for the Raiders when the team relocates to Las Vegas in 2020 to open a new shiny stadium. He won’t be there nor will he be at community events in Las Vegas as the face of the Raiders. For Oakland, it’s another punch in the gut. The pain of losing their favorite team still lingers, but it helped that Mack was still theirs for another few years. Now that too is taken away from them.
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Contact Gilbert Manzano at gmanzano@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GManzano24 on Twitter.
