When the Bears played the Raiders in 2019, star pass rusher Khalil Mack made no secret that he was out for revenge. He didn’t get it, though, as the Bears lost and he didn’t record a sack against his former team.
It’s revenge time again for Mack when his Chargers host the Bears on Sunday. General manager Ryan Poles dealt Mack for a second- and sixth-round pick last year as he began the rebuild.
While it was a logical move, Mack seems to be holding on to it. He didn’t say much publicly about the Bears this week, but safety Eddie Jackson has been in touch.
“I don’t know if Mack is circling no games on the schedule, but I think this one was — Raiders and here,” Jackson said Friday. “I don’t want to speak for him, but I think it’s gonna be a little personal.”
Mack had 36 sacks in four seasons with the Bears and has 15 in 23 games for the Chargers.
Seeing Mack traded, and later that year standouts Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, made Jackson realize anything can happen. He’s making no assumptions about his status or cornerback Jaylon Johnson’s with the trade deadline next week.
“You get rid of Mack, Roquan and Rob — just the realization of it: anybody can get traded,” Jackson said. “I can be out of here. It’s just no guarantees for anyone. We don’t hold no bad taste toward anybody, because they have a job to do as well. That’s their job to do what’s best for the team and the organization.
“While we’re here, just got to continue to contribute to the team, win and ball out. [Johnson has] been ballin’, so we’ve got to continue to do that no matter if he’s here or another place, it all works out. God has the last word with everything. And he’s a faith guy, so we just gotta have conviction in our faith and keep believing in that.”
Johnson is in the final season of his rookie contract and has not gotten the extension he has been hoping for. He was optimistic about a deal Thursday, but realistic about the possibility of getting traded.
