What an ideal scenario for the Chicago Bears to unveil the new centerpiece of their revived defense: Khalil Mack, meet Aaron Rodgers.
A week after the blockbuster trade from Oakland paved the way for Mack to secure a six-year, $141 million contract that makes him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player, the debut comes in primetime on Sunday night at Lambeau Field, of all places.
Against the Bears’ most-dreaded division rival.
Chasing the Green Bay Packers quarterback with a contract worth up to $180 that's bigger than Mack’s.
How lucky for NFL to wind up with that storyline for the weekend’s showcase game, as Mack – whose deal guaranteed $90 million and averages $23.5 million a year — can get acclimated to his new team by stepping into the NFL’s longest-running rivalry.
It’s unclear how big of a role Mack will play, given he held out of the Raiders’ training camp amid the contract dispute that sparked the trade. The Bears will manage Mack’s snaps by using a so-called pitch count, yet given his prowess in coming off the edge and the 40 ½ sacks in his first four NFL seasons, it’s a no-brainer that the plan will be begin with the pass-rush package.
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“I feel like I’m ready,” Mack told reporters this week. “But you know, the game – we’ve got to get to it and my body will respond the way it’s going to respond. And then coaches are going to kind of ease me into it, and so we’re going to figure it out.”
If the game is close in crunch time, figure Mack can summon extra adrenaline.
Other items of interest as Week 1 rolls on:
Who’s hot: Shaquem Griffin. With K.J. Wright on the mend from a knee scope, the fifth-round rookie will open the season for the Seahawks as a starter at Denver. Sure, it’s another marker for the inspirational journey that Griffin embodies as a player who has thrived despite having his left hand amputated when he was 4 years old. But at this point, it’s also obvious that we’re not talking about a player with a limitation. Griffin, whose twin brother Shaquill starts at cornerback for Seattle, just needed an NFL team to believe in him enough for an opportunity. Now, despite his suspect draft slide, he’s carried on as you’d expect for a prospect who recorded the fastest 40-yard dash time ever (4.38 seconds) for a linebacker at the combine.
Pressure’s on: Kirk Cousins. The Vikings lured the former Washington quarterback with a three-year, $84 million free agent deal that also sticks out because it is fully guaranteed – almost unheard of when it comes to NFL contracts. As Cousins begins a new era on Sunday against San Francisco (which has its own big-money quarterback in the still-undefeated Jimmy Garoppolo), there is no shortage of expectations that he will be the missing ingredient for winning a Super Bowl. With the whopping contract, the Vikings haven’t bet this big on a new player since 1989 when they mortgaged their draft future to bring Herschel Walker to town as the missing ingredient.
Key matchup: Odell Beckham, Jr. vs. Jalen Ramsey. The appeal of this matchup inside the Jaguars-Giants tilt at the Meadowlands goes deeper than pitting one of the NFL’s best receivers against one of the league’s best cornerbacks. It’s the manner in which Ramsey has generated buzz with his mouth, which included slamming OBJ’s thrower, Eli Manning, amid ripping several quarterbacks in an interview for GQ. So Ramsey will have a target on his back in addition to the task of dealing with Beckham. Trash-talking is part of Ramsey’s game, which fuels questions about whether the ultra-intense OBJ will be drawn into the type of ugly, extra-curricular action he engaged in with Josh Norman in another much-hyped matchup a few years ago.
Next man up: James Connor. The sub for holdout star Le’Veon Bell in the Steelers’ offense arrived on the scene as a third-round pick from Pitt last year, when he barely got on the field. Connor had just 32 carries as a rookie and zero catches, while Bell handled his typical workhorse duty with an NFL-high 321 rushes. It’s one thing to absorb a huge chunk of Bell’s carries while running behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. But Bell also caught 85 passes in 2017, more than any NFL running back. The impact that Connor can have in the passing game begins with trust in his pass protection, which should be higher because he knows the playbook better. It’s also striking that, as Bell did early in his NFL career, Connor (6-1, 233) has come back with a sleeker frame that suggests he might be more fluid with his route-running.
Rookie watch: Sam Darnold. The Jets will open at Detroit Monday night with the youngest quarterback to start a season in the NFL since the 1970 merger. Darnold, the Southern Cal product drafted third overall, will be 21 years, 97 days old when he takes his first NFL snap. Although Darnold has impressed the Jets with his grasp of the playbook, the tests get tougher when the real games begin and the blitzes flow with more creativity. Here’s hoping that Darnold gets enough protection from an O-line that represents a big question mark.
If the playoffs were today… The matchup in Foxborough, with the Patriots hosting the Texans, could have a pass-the-torch flavor. In a Week 3 shootout last season, Houston nearly upset New England as then-rookie Deshaun Watson posted his first 300-yard game. Watson also had the hard knocks lessons that came with two picks, which is why he emphasized keeping the mistakes to a minimum, if you’re expecting to get the best of Tom Brady on his own turf. We’ll see what the learning curve presents. And if they meet again in January the much-higher stakes might involve a Super Bowl berth.
Stomach for an upset: Steelers at Browns. Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been pretty much a part-owner of Jimmy Haslam’s franchise, considering his 21-2 career mark against the Browns and that he has notched more W’s in Cleveland than any Browns quarterback since 1999. So what better way for the Browns — 0-16 last season and 1-31 in two years under Hue Jackson – to send a statement that they are finally turning it around than to score an upset against a division bully. The weather conditions might be brutal at First Energy Stadium, with the forecast calling for driving rain and high winds off Lake Erie. Yet after being showcased this summer on HBO’s Hard Knocks, Cleveland needs to generate some kind of lightning strike.
Stat’s the fact: $273 million. That’s what the Los Angeles Rams committed in guaranteed dollars for the NFL’s biggest offseason spending spree, which culminated in the six-year, $135 million extension for Aaron Donald that guaranteed $87 million. As they open on Monday night in Oakland, there’s no mistaking LA’s win-big-now mission.
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