We would not be getting the 2016 Khalil Mack. Hell we can’t even get the 2018 Khalil Mack to show up last season. Was Mack in 2018 able to handle double teams about every other play yeah, but in 2022 you can’t ask him to do that.
Again who to believe JoJoBoxer or my eyes and an NFL defensive linemen.
Quinn had like 20 sacks last season, who were the other offenses doubling when Mack was on IR? It certainly wasn’t Akiem Hicks. Either way if you’re expecting this team to compete for a super bowl next season you’re delusional. With or without Mack.
If you want to believe an NFL lineman as if he is some kind of expert over watching actual top 10 plays from when Mack was playing RDE, but his LDE plays were better, that is your call. Not all players who have played in the NFL are suddenly experts in scouting. Sure, they are better than you or me, but the film never lies, while players can.
As for Mack, his problem was that he and the team always decided to keep playing him while hurt, making him less effective and causing him to get additional injures and then doubling down and having him heal during the offseason instead of fixing the problem with surgery, again making him less effective and causing him to get hurt again. Since he went on IR during the season, he finally has had time to heal from surgery and come back healthy for once since he has been here.
Will he be able to come back to 2018 form after his injuries finally being treated correctly, with his age? Who knows? But he has a better chance than most.
As for being a Super Bowl contender, I never said that they would. Be honest, there are usually around 5 teams or so that have a realistic chance of being a Super Bowl contender most years and then there comes one or two teams that surprise, like Cincy this year.
The one thing that you forget is that new coaches bring new offenses to the team and they are a great unknowns (unless Fox brings in his run, run, pass offense) to defenses. Two perfect examples are the Trestman and Nagy first year offenses. Both were very good their first years and both were figured out their second years.
Nagy's offense was a Super Bowl contender if it weren't for the double doink and that was because they had a very good defense. Trestman's offense might have been a Super Bowl contender offense if it weren't for the defense which was pathetic.
Well, if the Flus offense somehow catches teams by surprise and does well its first year, it would be more like the Trestman situation because the defense would have let it down for the reasons I mentioned before.
Are the chances high of this happening? Hell, no! But no one expected Cincy to make it to the Super Bowl, just like no one expected the Giants to win the Super Bowl as a wild card team years ago. They got hot at the right time and barely made the playoffs and then ... Super Bowl champs.
But that time has passed for the Bears in 2022. They will not have a very good pass rush from their front 4 and will require pressure from other sources, weakening their already weak defense.
My hope is a large growth spurt from Fields. Anything else is just icing on the cake.