The Chicago Bears defense has become the fear of the NFL. Sure, New England may have the “best” unit in terms of stats thus far but they’ve been greatly aided by a laughable string of quarterbacks. The Bears have played Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco, and Kirk Cousins. While not all of them are stars, all have had success in the league at least. Yet none of them could muster more than 14 points against this defense. A big reason for all of that is Khalil Mack.
As time goes on, it’s proven more and more that GM Ryan Pace pulled off one of the best trades in Bears history. Sure it’s only 21 games in but that’s just how profound the impact has been. He has 17 sacks in 18 games played thus far. Not to mention 10 forced fumbles That’s a rate of production this team hasn’t seen in a long time. Not even out of Julius Peppers during his dominant run from 2010 to 2012. The scary part is Mack is only 28. Presuming he stays healthy, this could go on for a number of years longer.
He’s been so dominant to start the season that NFL experts don’t just see him as a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, but even Most Valuable Player. Chris Wesseling of NFL.com went so far as to rank him second on a list of 10 names currently in the running, right behind reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes.
“Someday we’ll invent a defensive metric capable of capturing Mack’s impact on a football game. Until that golden hour, alas, we’ll have to endure the hard times of actuarial obfuscation: This sport’s preeminent money-down game wrecker will get credit for a mere sack when he leaves the left tackle in cement shoes on his way to an explosive blind-side strip-sack that calls to mind a great white shark breeching 15 feet out of the water to play beach ball with a seal…
How is that a fair and reasonable representation of the play’s outcome? Every Mack disruption doesn’t force a turnover or toss a potential playmaker backwards for a game-changing loss. It just seems that way.”
Khalil Mack said he wanted to be like Lawrence Taylor
To date, the last defensive player to win the MVP award was back in 1986 when Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor grabbed the honor with 20.5 sacks. Mack himself stated that his goal as a player was to be like LT and Derrick Thomas. Arguably the two greatest 3-4 pass rushers ever to play the game. It’s actually interesting how much the Bears mirror that New York Giants team. A dominant defense coupled with a talented but disjointed offense searching for an identity.
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One thing was for sure. The Giants knew they always had a chance to win with Taylor on the field. The same goes for Mack. No matter what teams do, they can’t stop him. Chip him, hold him, triple-team him and he’ll still get to the quarterback sooner or later. Guys like that are ultra-rare in the NFL, which again raises questions about how the Oakland Raiders ever convinced themselves that he should’ve been traded in the first place. Not that anybody in Chicago would ever complain about that.
