Packers and Bears both made monster trades, but the details show Green Bay’s move with Micah Parsons is not history repeating itself
Packers traded for Micah Parsons seven after years the Bears acquired Khalil Mack.
There is no way around it. The Green Bay Packers made a huge investment to acquire edge defender Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys, giving up two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, plus agreeing to a four-year, $186 million extension—with an extra $2 million available in incentives.
The closest comparison for the move also happened in the NFC North. Seven years ago, and also right before the regular season kicked off, the Chicago Bears executed a blockbuster trade to acquire Khalil Mack from the Oakland Raiders. The Bears had immediate success after that deal, but regressed after the initial boost.
Could something similar happen with the Packers? What are the similarities and differences between these two big moves?
The players
Both Mack and Parsons got traded after four seasons with their original teams. By the time of his trade, Mack was a year older than Parsons is now (27 to 26). Mack was the defensive player of the year in 2016 and a two-time First-Team All-Pro. Parsons was the defensive rookie of the year in 2021, a two-time First-Team All-Pro, and a one-time Second-Team All-Pro.
With a similar number of games played, Mack still had more pass rush opportunities as a full-time edge, while Parsons started his career as a hybrid off-ball linebacker. Even then, Parsons had more sacks in his first four seasons, with a better sack and quarterback hit rate, according to Felipe Reis Aceti.
From a pure impact and defensive transformation perspective, the Mack trade was absolutely successful and one that was, in theory, conducted at the right time. In 2017, the Bears ranked ninth in points allowed and 10th in total yards allowed. The next season, with the addition of Mack, Chicago’s unit finished as the top scoring defense and third in yards allowed, while making the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
Mack elevated the entire defense for Chicago by being a consistent issue off the edge, totaling 12.5 sacks and 68 pressures. That level of pressure made things easy for the secondary, with Kyle Fuller and Eddie Jackson each recording career-highs in interceptions.
Draft capital and results
The Bears won 12 games in 2018 and made the playoffs, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round. They haven’t won more than eight games in a season since. Part of that is attributed to the lack of cheap, young talent given up on the trade. The Bears, though, gave up less than the Packers. The deal also included two first-round picks, but the mid/late-round swaps favored the Bears, and there was no additional player involved. Green Bay gave up two pure first-rounders and Clark.
But the roster situation is different from what the Bears had. Jordan Love is much more established as a quarterback than Mitchell Trubisky was, and the Packers have had an influx of young talent with the highest number of picks during the past four years.
Chicago had enough young pieces, so the team felt confident in moving four draft picks, including two first-rounders. The team had a young quarterback in Trubisky, a solid one-two punch at running back in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen, along with some developing pieces on defense, like Fuller, Jackson, and linebacker Roquan Smith.
In the 2019 NFL Draft, the Bears still came away with running back David Montgomery in the third round after the Raiders used Chicago’s first-rounder to take running back Josh Jacobs. With the added second-round pick from the Raiders in 2020, Chicago landed tight end Cole Kmet in a class that also featured cornerback Jaylon Johnson and wide receiver Darnell Mooney. To put it another way, the Bears’ lack of sustainability from 2018 to 2022 was not caused by a lack of draft capital.
What ruined the sustainability of that era was the lack of development from Trubisky at quarterback and even Matt Nagy as the head coach. After being named a Pro Bowl selection in 2018, Trubisky’s touchdown numbers dropped from 24 to 17, as the offense went from being ranked inside the top-10 in scoring to being ranked 29th in the league.
As for Nagy, the team’s former head coach reflected on his tenure with the Bears and admitted that he did not have a strong bond with his entire locker, which made it difficult to work through the tough stretches after the 2018 season.
The cap space
After the trade in 2018, the Bears gave Mack a six-year, $141 million extension. That $23.5 million yearly average meant 13.2% of the salary cap at that point. Based on today’s cap, that would be a $37.02 million average.
The Packers are paying Parsons $46.5 million a year in base value, which is 16.65% of the salary cap. There’s no way around it; the roster will suffer at some point. General manager Brian Gutekunst will have to draft well, as he has done, on Days 2 and 3, while Love and Parsons will need to elevate the team — and that’s why the team paid them.
It goes beyond the investment
If Trubisky had taken that next step as a quarterback and Nagy held his locker room together for the Bears, there’s no question they could have made more of a run during the 2020 playoffs. The other thing Trubisky suffered from was not having a talented supporting cast in the passing game outside of Allen Robinson, which left the entire offense one-dimensional. Meanwhile, the Packers have players like Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Tucker Kraft, and Luke Musgrave with contracts beyond 2025.
The lesson to be learned from Chicago’s trade wasn’t about the draft capital. It’s about making sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that the right pieces are in place at head coach and quarterback to elevate the rest of the team. Mack’s presence turned Chicago’s defense into a Super Bowl-caliber unit that ultimately played with a hand tied behind its back.
With LaFleur and Love, the Packers are in position to do it — just like the Los Angeles Rams did with Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford after trading two first-rounders for cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
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