Just a thought about building a team... Khalil Mack. We saw this a bit with Ndamakung Suh when he was with us. We paid record money for Suh and the Bears played record money for Mack...even more. We have very little to show for Suh's time with us. Mack was as good as any could have hoped in his limited role. He was dominant. And they still lost. For him to be worth the investment, IMO, they have to become dominant on defense and they have to make the playoffs. Maybe as his conditioning improves, his presence will lift the team to victories. But on defense, big money contracts are very risky.
What a pleasure to watch that defense and Fangio being able to let Mack loose with minimal time to prepare. There's no problem doling out top money for top talent. Just have to know how to use them and do so in making those better around them. Mack is the first player since 1982 to record a sack, interception, touchdown, forced fumble and fumble recovery in one half. I mean, you can't get any better than Mack's debut on that defense. He was phenomenal. There's only so much a single player can do within a team.
Dude Mack paid off in his first game took out the rival QB, sacked him, intercepted for a TD was a dominant force all night. You can't fault him for Aaron Rodgers comeback. Id take Mack in a heartbeat.
The larger the contract for any one player, the tougher it is to build around that player. There's obviously a trade-off mechanism at work. The Bears were a top-10 defense last year. It's reasonable to think they might be elite this year if Mack plays really well. That said, you could also argue that defense just wasn't their biggest problem and that bigger gains will be made overall through developing the offense. But a blind man could see that's mostly dependent upon how Mitch Trubisky develops. So if the Bears really have the money to spend, it's either going to go towards paying a couple offensive linemen, adding weapons on the outside or adding one of the most dominant pass-rushers in the league. At the end of the day, I think pouring that money into either the O-line or the pass rush is equally smart. So I think it's more a case of smoke 'em if you got 'em.
The problem with the Suh signing was that he wasn't the last piece we needed to get us over the top, instead he was brought in to fix all of our Defensive woes. I've never been a big fan of breaking the bank for any one player, but if you are going to do it, it should be to push for a serious title run. Not to bring in leadership, not to act as an example for younger players, and NOT to make your team relevant. I don't follow Chicago enough to know if they are making a great decision with Khalil, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Suh's time here and our money spent was wasted.
Cant wait to see how Suh and Donald pair up tonight and if anyone other than Lynch notices that they are there.
