What Else Bears Can Do to Assist Khalil Mack's Rush

A poll of more than 50 coaches, executive, scouts and players by ESPN determined Khalil Mack is the best edge rusher in the NFL.

They probably could have saved themselves the effort and just looked at a couple film clips and determined this but an article by Jeremy Fowler about the poll for ESPN.com said Mack was first over Chandler Jones, then Nick Bosa, and Von Miller in fourth. The rest of the poll was Myles Garrett fifth, Joey Bosa sixth, T.J. Watt seventh, Frank Clark eighth Cam Jordan ninth and DeMarcus Lawrence 10th.

Mack was a top three vote for almost every participant, and ranked no worse than fifth with anyone.

The interesting part of this was one of the two comments listed, from a coach who is reported to have said, "Your game plan doesn't matter with him."

If only this were true, the Bears would have been much better off last season.

Teams did find ways to game plan Mack last year after a year when he consistently made offensive lines look inept.

They ganged up on Mack and their gamble wasn't going to work consistently if the Bears could counter their double- and triple-teaming tactics.

The Bears couldn't. They failed, to some extent, because Leonard Floyd never became the closer as a pass rusher who could beat one-on-one blocking caused by double-teaming Mack.

They failed because they couldn't compensate for losing Akiem Hicks on the interior to an injury, and it was Hicks' rhino-style rush which often disrupted or helped destroy double-team schemes on the left side of the line for Mack in 2018.

GM Ryan Pace did his part to solve the problem by swallowing his pride and getting rid of Floyd, then signing someone who excels at beating double-team blocks. Robert Quinn was the best in the league over the last two years at pass rush win rate, or beating blockers in 2.5 seconds, according to Next Gen stats. He had 22 more pass rush pressures in the past three seasons than Floyd did.

Then nature did it's part to help Mack, restoring Hicks' injured elbow to health. He was at full strength very early in spring.

Mack will do his part, and already has with his conditioning.

The missing element is coaches doing their part during games to combat drastic, even desperate tactics used to stymie Mack. Defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano thinks he didn't fully handle this part well.

It's a chess match in the NFL even when a raw physical talent of Mack's ability is involved. There needs to be more strategically done to complement the manpower edge they've supplied to Mack.

"So a lot of that falls on me and I take responsibility for that and I'm accountable for that," Pagano said. "Khalil would never say that. He would say, 'hey, look, I've got to win. I don't care how many guys you put on me.' "

Admirable, but even for the game's best edge rusher it's not true.

In this chess match Mack has the power of a queen, and still needs to have help. They have more ways to do this with Hicks and Quinn to disrupt blocking plans or simply win on their own.

Mack has never played on a line with both a consistent power force inside of Hicks' caliber, and a counter on the other edge of Quinn's ability.

Projecting what Mack's numbers will be with these two physical forces beside him on the line of scrimmage can lead to wild numbers. It can really get ugly for offenses if the Bears' defensive coaches figure out how to make it all work. Sometimes putting a group of standouts together backfires in no one playing effectively.

If coaches now have a way to combat double-teaming not at their disposal in the past, coach Matt Nagy said they also have a better understanding of who their own players are and what they're capable of doing. This includes Mack.

"One thing I’d like to say on that real quick is just remember, just like we went through last year with offense, defensively, coach Pagano, going through, learning who guys are, how to use them, where to put them, that sort of thing," Nagy said. "So it's going to be great to get feedback from players, from coaches, etc, to have that next year together."

It still comes down to applying better strategies and player deployment.

"It's a matter of us as a defensive staff figuring out ways to beat protections," outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino said.

Coaches still expect to see Mack drawing double teams even with Hicks and Quinn playing.

"I will tell ya, I know if I'm coaching offense and I've got a dominant player on the other side, I'm going to tend to that player on every snap," Monachino said. "And I think that's some of the things we saw a year ago with Khalil. I wouldn't think that would change.

"I do know it's a lot more difficult when there are more than one known rusher that teams have to deal with and I think that certainly can be the case if Khalil continues to develop and Robert comes in and does the same."

If this all comes together the way the Bears hope, no one would need to take a poll to determine the best outside pass rusher.

Khalil Mack at a Glance

Buffalo OLB

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 269

Key Numbers: Since Mack came to the Bears his percentage of sacks per game increased from 0.63 a game to 0.70 but his number of quarterback hits has decreased signficantly from 1.31 to 1.06 a game.

2020 Projection: 14 sacks, 5 forced fumbles.

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