That 2nd rounder they gave back was key. It will be a high 2nd rounder which makes it almost like a late 1st. Our 2020 1st rounder, if all goes well, will be a late 1st rounder. So let's call our 2020 1st rounder and their 2020 2nd rounder a wash. So we basically traded for Mack for a 2019 1st rounder, 2019 6th rounder, and a 2020 3rd rounder. And as a safety net, we still get a conditional 5th rounder from them.
That's crazy for a player like Mack.
Perhaps it is semantics, but I have seen so many people make reference to the overall trade in different ways.
First, to be perfectly clear, I LOVE this trade.
But we did not "get back a 2nd rounder", we traded up from a 3rd to a 2nd. But I am very happy with that. It softens the blow of that 2020 first rounder being used.
I stated on Saturday in much the same way Pace said it: Our 2019 first round pick was Khalil Mack. If you pick that player in Round 1, you've hit a home run. And we get him in 2018, also, by using the 2019 pick. (Nobody ever seems to account for that part when teams trade away future #1's. Carson Wentz played a season in Philly prior to the draft pick they used for him. Well, one of them)
King's perspective on % of salary cap, and wisely accounting for the expected rise, was interesting and on point. Another point to consider is that a huge contract per year today looks better as years go by since salaries only go up. Two years from now, some player not nearly as good as Aaron Donald or Mack will be making more per year.
I realize Mack is not some superman simply by seeing that coaches game plan for him. That happens with others, too. But how many? Mack is one of a relatively small number of defenders who alter the game plan so significantly. I look forward to seeing how much flexibility it gives Vic in formations, where he sends pressure from, how ot helps our secondary, etc.
I, too, wish Smith and mack were practicing for longer than a week or so prior to GB, and the fact that is in Week 1 is not great. But then again...what a way to start.
Football season was going to be far more interesting this year than in the recent past, and it just got much more so!