Bears star Khalil Mack on warpath after unsatisfying 2019 season

Mack sounded as though he has been thinking about the 2020 opener since the moment last season ended. And while he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone, he’s determined to have a monster season.

SHARE Bears star Khalil Mack on warpath after unsatisfying 2019 season
mack__13_.jpg

After 49 sacks the previous four seasons, Mack dropped to just 8.5 in 2019.

Getty

Khalil Mack doesn’t need the Bears’ coaches to defend him as more productive than his stats showed last season, nor is he interested in explanations about being left to face triple-teams because Akiem Hicks got hurt and Leonard Floyd wasn’t a pass-rushing threat.

None of that matters. Mack was the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL in 2019 and had his fewest sacks since his rookie season in 2014.

‘‘I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t good enough at all,’’ Mack said Saturday in his first comments since December. ‘‘I don’t make any excuses. I just rise to the occasion, and I am getting ready for this one. It’s gonna be a fun one, man. I can’t wait.’’

Mack spoke on a Zoom call more than three hours after the Bears’ scrimmage ended, but he was hardly done working for the day. He took questions as he huffed through a ride on a Peloton bike at his house, as though practice hadn’t been enough to tire him out.

In between breaths, he made one thing unmistakably clear: He’s on the warpath this season. He has been thinking about it constantly after the failures of last season — namely, his 8.5 sacks and the Bears’ 8-8 record. He said ‘‘can’t wait’’ 10 times on the call. And while he doesn’t think he needs to prove anything to anybody, he’s determined to prove it anyway.

‘‘I know myself, I know what I’m capable of, and this is gonna be fun, man,’’ Mack said. ‘‘I can’t wait to get out there with my teammates and make plays and give oohs and ahhs to the TV crowd.

‘‘It brings me joy, man. I love this game. It’s fun. I don’t stress over this game. But I love it, and I just can’t wait to get out there with my guys.’’

Chief among those guys is Robert Quinn, one of the most dangerous quarterback chasers of this era. The Bears’ blueprint is to put Mack and Quinn opposite each other, with Hicks in the middle, to form the NFL’s fiercest pass rush.

The Bears had that in 2018, Mack’s first season with them. They were good, not great, last season.

Mack has the big contract and the big name, so the spotlight is always on him. But some would argue he did all he could under the circumstances.

‘‘Everyone always goes to the numbers,’’ coach Matt Nagy said. ‘‘When you have a lot of sacks in your career, like he does, that’s what people evaluate. . . . But we also look to see how much are you affecting the quarterback. Every team that we play is gonna have to game-plan for him.’’

Mack was the only one opponents had to game-plan for last season. Hicks missed a game early, then exited with a dislocated elbow in Week 5. He’s nursing a quadriceps injury but is otherwise healthy and expected to be good to go for the opener. Floyd, who sputtered to three sacks, was released in March and replaced by Quinn on a five-year, $70 million deal.

Quinn could be a game-changer for Mack. At his best, he was an All-Pro during a three-year run in which he piled up 40 sacks for the Rams. He’s still a weapon at age 30, as he showed with 11.5 sacks last season for the Cowboys.

‘‘Rob is a hell of a player, man, and an even better person,’’ Mack said. ‘‘And I know it’s just gonna be fun being out there with a guy that’s going 110 mph on the other side.’’

And?

‘‘And I can’t wait.’’

The Latest
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.
The way inflation is measured masks certain costs that add to the prices that consumers pay every day. Not surprisingly, higher costs mean lower consumer confidence, no matter what Americans are told about an improving economy.