Chicago Sports

CHAMPAIGN, IL-Nashville senior Kolten Gajewski had never dunked in a game. But there he was, on a fastbreak in double-overtime with 10 seconds to play, all alone with the chance to finally throw one down.

He slammed it home.

“To do it on a stage like this was awesome,” Gajewski said. “To do it on a stage like this was awesome. I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”

Gajewski heard his coaches pleading for him to stop, pull the ball out and set up the offense. But he wasn’t afraid that he would miss the crucial bucket.

“I was,” Hornets coach Patrick Weathers said.

It provided an exclamation point on a game that desperately needed one. Nashville beat DePaul Prep 31-24 in double-overtime. The victory sends the Hornets into Saturday’s Class 2A state championship game against Monticello.

Nashville has proclaimed its style of basketball to be “winning ugly.” The Hornets focus on defense and slow the tempo down on offense.

That’s the same formula DePaul Prep prefers, so no one expected the game to be a shootout. But it was one of the lowest-scoring games in the history of the Illinois High School Association’s state tournament.

Several records were broken:

-Fewest points for a team in a Class 2A state tournament game, previously held by 2011 Pittsfield (35).

-Fewest points for a team in any class in the four-class era, previously held by 2011 Woodlawn (27).

-Fewest points in a game for both teams combined in a Class 2A state tournament game, previously held by 2010 Breese Central and Manual (77).

-Fewest field goals made in a game by both teams in the four-class era, previously held by 2011 Deer Creek and Woodlawn (22). DePaul Prep and Nashville combined for 21 field goals in the double-overtime game.

Saxton Hoepker led Nashville (29-4) with 13 points and 10 rebounds. He scored the Hornets’ final 10 points in regulation, leading them back from a six-point deficit.

DePaul Prep (26-6) didn’t score a field goal for the final 14 minutes of play. The Rams made one free throw in each overtime.

“It just shows us that we can do anything in any situation,” Gajewski said. “We are all comfortable enough to bear down. It shows the family aspect of our team and what we can do when we work hard.”

Nashville never subbed. The five starters, Hoepker, Gajewski, Carter Schoenherr, Nolan Heggemeier, and Isaac Turner, played all 40 minutes.

“That’s probably the most athletic team we’ve seen all year,” Nashville coach Patrick Weathers said. “These guys got enough rebounds and enough free throws to get the job done.”

Dylan Arnett, a Wisconsin-Milwaukee recruit, led DePaul Prep with eight points. Trevon Thomas and Alex Gutierrez each scored six points.

“[Tom Kleinschmidt] is a great coach,” Weathers said. “They execute very differently from a lot of teams [in Chicago]. That helped us. We’re not built for a track meet or anything like that. When they want to keep the game in the 30’s and 40’s and you don’t have to score 50 or 60 to win, that’s an advantage for us.”

The Rams shot 10 of 38 from the field and 0-for-10 from three. They will play Rockridge in the third-place game late Thursday night.

“At the end there were three or four loose balls that we didn’t come up with and two offensive rebounds we didn’t come up with,” Kleinschmidt said. “They were quicker to the ball late and they made plays. It was a battle. All the credit goes to Nashville.”

Nashville vs. DePaul Prep box score

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While President Joe Biden is going after Russian oligarchs’ bank accounts, Illinois gambling regulators are going after their sports betting markets.

In a largely symbolic declaration issued two weeks after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter on Thursday banned the state’s sportsbooks from laying odds on Russian contests, calling it “contrary to public policy.”

Fruchter’s edict means casinos can’t take bets on “any sports event, league or competition” in Russia or Belarus, the eastern European nation that has aided Russian President Vladimir Putin in his violent assault on Ukraine.

“I have determined that wagering in Illinois on such sports poses a significant likelihood of serious risks to the integrity of the Illinois sports wagering industry,” Fruchter said during a virtual Gaming Board meeting. “We hope that peace will soon prevail.”

Many sportsbooks previously pulled Russian contests from the board in the days after the Feb. 24 invasion, as a growing number of U.S. businesses face pressure to sever ties with any interests in the country.

It’s not clear how many Illinois bettors actually were wagering on Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League or other Moscow-adjacent events, anyway. The Gaming Board tracks bets placed by sport, but not by league.

It’s safe to say gamblers in the state will make do. Illinois gamblers have plunked down almost $10 billion on sports since the legitimate industry launched in March of 2020. That includes a record-breaking monthly handle, or total amount of money wagered, of more than $867 million in January.

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Last week, new Bears general manager Ryan Poles bemoaned the lack of draft picks left him by Ryan Pace.

“That’s just the hand we were dealt,” he said. “And we’ll be open-minded on how we can create more picks.”

Thursday, he certainly was open-minded, agreeing to trade edge rusher Khalil Mack to the Chargers for a second-round draft pick next month and a sixth-round pick next year. The trade cannot become official until the start of the league year Wednesday and is contingent on Mack passing a physical after having season-ending foot surgery in November.

Poles trading a sure-fire Pro Football Hall of Famer in his first major Bears move is a bold, refreshingly cold-hearted move, considering the Bears made Mack the richest defensive player in history when they traded for him four years ago.

It’s also a smart way for the 36-year-old Poles to begin reshaping his team. There will be more trades, too. The Bears are eyeing 2023 or later — and not 2022 — to begin competing at the highest level.

This is a rebuild. The Bears were always in need of one — and it became more logical the second quarterback Aaron Rodgers agreed to return to the Packers last week.

The Bears figure to look for free agents next week that will allow quarterback Justin Fields to operate within a functional offense. Otherwise, improving the team’s long-term roster outlook will be prioritized over bettering last season’s 6-11 record. The Bears have their first-round pick next year — unlike this season, they will be able to reap the draft rewards of a bad season.

The Bears’ roster, as it stands now, is devoid of elite players. Poles knows that.

When advisor Bill Polian analyzed the roster before suggesting the Bears fire Pace and coach Matt Nagy, he found the team had six or eight difference-makers. Good teams, he said, have a dozen or more. Mack, 31, was among them, but it was always fair to wonder whether he would still be playing at an elite level by the next time the Bears fielded a good roster around him.

Moving Mack this offseason eliminated the risk his value would be torpedoed by an injury. In the short term, it will hurt. Mack was due to have a $30.15 million cap charge in 2022. Trading him means the Bears have to eat $24 million in dead cap this year — the fourth-most in league history and the most ever for someone who doesn’t play quarterback.

Poles’ reward for paying $24 million for Mack to play for someone else: the Bears are free and clear after 2022. With Mack gone, they are projected to have $120 million in salary cap space in 2023– and that counts the salaries of edge rusher Robert Quinn, safety Eddie Jackson and defensive tackle Eddie Goldman, who could all be on the move. Goldman seems unlikely to still be on the Bears at the end of next week.

Fields turned 23 last week. His growth this season will determine how fast the Bears attack the free-agent and trade markets going forward. Now they’ll have the money to do so. The Bears gained $6.15 million in cap space this season, $28.5 million in cap space in 2023 and $26.25 million in 2024, the last year of Mack’s contract.

Poles doesn’t have a first-round pick because of the Fields trade but he now has two second-rounders: the Bears’ original No. 39 overall and the Chargers’ No. 48. That gives Poles flexibility to move around on draft day, and maybe even trade into the very back end of the first round.

That’s not as exciting as being the team that trades for a Hall of Famer — just ask Bears fans who consider Sept. 1, 2018, the best day their franchise had since they reached the Super Bowl. But it makes sense.

Bring on the rebuild.

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While President Joe Biden is going after Russian oligarchs’ bank accounts, Illinois gambling regulators are going after their sports betting markets.

In a largely symbolic declaration issued two weeks after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter on Thursday banned the state’s sportsbooks from laying odds on Russian contests, calling it “contrary to public policy.”

Fruchter’s edict means casinos can’t take bets on “any sports event, league or competition” in Russia or Belarus, the eastern European nation that has aided Russian President Vladimir Putin in his violent assault on Ukraine.

“I have determined that wagering in Illinois on such sports poses a significant likelihood of serious risks to the integrity of the Illinois sports wagering industry,” Fruchter said during a virtual Gaming Board meeting. “We hope that peace will soon prevail.”

Many sportsbooks previously pulled Russian contests from the board in the days after the Feb. 24 invasion, as a growing number of U.S. businesses face pressure to sever ties with any interests in the country.

It’s not clear how many Illinois bettors actually were wagering on Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League or other Moscow-adjacent events, anyway. The Gaming Board tracks bets placed by sport, but not by league.

It’s safe to say gamblers in the state will make do. Illinois gamblers have plunked down almost $10 billion on sports since the legitimate industry launched in March of 2020. That includes a record-breaking monthly handle, or total amount of money wagered, of more than $867 million in January.

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Patrick Finley and Mark Potash break down the pending trade of Bears star Khalil Mack to the Chargers, and debate what it means for the franchise’s future.

New episodes of “Halas Intrigue” will be published regularly with accompanying stories collected on the podcast’s hub page. You can also listen to “Halas Intrigue” wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Luminary, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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The Chicago Bears are finalizing a trade that will send six-time Pro Bowl defensive end Khalil Mack to the Los Angeles Chargers, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Thursday.

The Chargers are expected to send a 2022 second-round draft pick and a 2023 sixth-rounder to the Bears in return for the 31-year-old Mack, a source said.

The deal marks the first major move for new Bears general manager Ryan Poles, who was hired in January. It also reunites Mack, the Defensive Player of the Year in 2016, with Chargers coach Brandon Staley. Staley was Mack’s linebackers coach when the Bears acquired him from the Raiders in September 2018.

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In that first season with Chicago, Mack finished with 12.5 sacks and in second place in the AP Defensive Player of the Year vote. It was the only double-digit-sack season he had in Chicago; he had six in 2021, but they came in seven games, as he had season-ending foot surgery in November.

The Chargers were in need of help along the defensive line. They finished 30th in rushing defense in 2021, allowing 138.9 yards per game, and allowed the highest conversion rate on third down in the NFL (69%).

Now, Mack will join four-time Pro Bowler Joey Bosa in what will be a fierce combination in Los Angeles. Over the past five seasons, Mack and Bosa both rank top four in total defensive pressures. They also both have exactly 12 strip sacks over the past five seasons, which is tied for sixth in the NFL.

Their presence will come at the perfect time for Los Angeles, with Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Derek Carr all opposing quarterbacks in a loaded AFC West.

Mack has three more seasons remaining on his contract and is owed $17.75 million in 2022, $22.9 million in ’23 and $23.25 million in ’24.

The Chargers will take on his full contract, a source told Schefter.

Los Angeles, 9-8 last season, got off to a 4-1 start but missed the playoffs for the third straight season, winning back-to-back games only once after Week 5, and losing three of the final four games.

MackBosaSacks46.547.5NFL rank10thT-6thQB pressures221207NFL rank3rdT-4th– Last five seasons

When Staley was hired as Chargers head coach last January, he credited working with Mack for helping tremendously in his development as a coach.

“I learned a lot more from Khalil Mack than he learned from me,” Staley said at the time. “I drew a lot of confidence being able to coach a guy like him and I think that that first season in Chicago and that first experience, I felt like, you know, I could do this someday.”

The Bears opted for major changes after going 6-11 and missing the playoffs for the ninth time in 11 years. They fired general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy, replacing them with Poles and Matt Eberflus, respectively.

Trading Mack for draft capital is the first big step by the new regime toward overhauling the roster.

Pace’s acquisition of Mack in a blockbuster trade with the Raiders — Mack had a contract dispute with the team — just before the start of the 2018 season helped transform a solid defense into an elite unit and propelled the Bears to the NFC North championship in Nagy’s first year.

Mack was an All-Pro that season with 12.5 sacks, helping Chicago go 12-4 and make the playoffs for the first time since 2010. But the Bears lost a wild-card game at Soldier Field to Philadelphia. Chicago never won a playoff game with Mack.

Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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MESA, Ariz. – Cubs infielders Nico Hoerner and Patrick Wisdom took batting practice and fielded ground balls at Bell Bank Park on Thursday morning, not knowing that another day of negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association would spark the biggest news of the offseason.

“Playing a full season, playing that many games in front of the fans is what it’s about,” Wisdom said when asked about the possibility of a full 162-game regular season. “I think my body’s ready for that, and I hope that we can get that done.”

He got his wish. Though the league threatened to take a full season off the table with several sets of deadlines, when the players association voted to accept the owners’ latest proposal on Thursday, the sides reportedly agreed to preserve the 162-game season.

Sunday becomes the new spring training report date for players other than those delayed by visas, multiple outlets reported. And Opening Day will be April 7, leaving a little over three and a half weeks in between.

How much spring training is enough to be ready for the regular season?

“That’s more of a question for the pitchers,” Hoerner said. “What we did in 2020, with the three-week build-up, was definitely fast. I did feel ready to play coming off of that. But with the amount of injuries we’ve had in the last couple years, I do think that, more than timing as a hitter or anything else, making sure that especially the stars in our game are healthy and ready for a full season … should be the biggest priority.”

From a starting pitcher’s perspective, Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks estimated earlier this week that he could make do with four turns through the rotation in spring training.

“We’re down here throwing a lot,” Hendricks said after a bullpen session Tuesday. “So, I bet your first outing, you can maybe start at around three innings. … You want to be able to go at least six [by the end]. If you’re starting the season not not fully up and not being ready for a full load, then from Day 1, you’re already putting stress on the bullpen. And it’s a long season, so it starts adding up quick.”

Spring training games are reportedly scheduled to start late next week, which would leave enough time for four turns through a five-man rotation.

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The strange case of Brittney Griner raises all sorts of perplexing questions.

Is one of the best women basketball players in the world a political pawn in the standoff between two antagonistic superpowers? Is she being treated like anyone else who allegedly violated drug laws in a foreign land? Is she safe in the hands of Vladimir Putin’s Russia?

But one thing is clear: Griner’s weeks-long detention by Russian authorities has again directed a troubling spotlight toward the glaring inequities that exist between the top male and female athletes in the United States.

Just imagine if one of the best male basketball players on the planet — say, LeBron James — was being held in Russia under similar circumstances, especially with that country now scorned by much of the world for its unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The media coverage would be 24/7.

The public outrage would be off the charts.

Griner’s case has drawn concern, to be sure, but it largely remains buried behind Major Leagues Baseball’s silly labor dispute, the homestretch of the NBA season, the launch of March Madness in college hoops, and an NFL offseason featuring headline-grabbing moves like Calvin Ripley’s suspension and Russell Wilson’s trade.

Richard Sheehan, a finance professor at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business who specializes in sports economics, said he’s not surprised that male sports continue to get more coverage than Griner’s case.

“Obviously, if this was LeBron James, more people would notice,” Sheehan said. “There’s not too many people in the United States who would say, ‘LeBron James, who is he?’ But there’s still a fairly high number who would say, ‘Brittney Griner, who is she?'”

Sheehan is more troubled by another reality of this case.

Griner plays in a Russian league that greatly augments her WNBA salary, a puny outlay in comparison to what the best male athletes are making.

While this is certainly apples to oranges, Griner’s annual pay for a four-month stint with the Phoenix Mercury is $228,000 (and probably closer to $500,000 with endorsement deals) — a comfortable living, to be sure, but not even a third of what big league players were asking for as a minimum salary in their negotiations with baseball’s owners.

“LeBron James makes a very good living in the United States without ever having to set foot outside the United States,” Sheehan said. “But women basketball players can make a hell of a lot more money playing in places like Russia than they can in the United States.”

While salaries have certainly improved in the WNBA — roughly half of the league’s players no longer feel compelled to play overseas — it’s still a choice that no modern-day NBA player has to make.

In a perfect world, no WNBA player would ever have to make it, either.

But we’re a long way from that world.

Just last season, the New York Liberty were fined a WNBA-record $500,000 for chartering flights to away games. The league typically doesn’t allow teams to charter flights because it could create a competitive advantage for franchises that can afford to pay for them.

Given the WNBA’s still-shoestring budget, it’s easy to see why Griner was headed back a country where she reportedly makes more than $1 million a year even as the U.S. State Department advised against it with the threat of war looming.

The most immediate concern is Griner’s well-being.

The specifics of her case have been hard to come by, from both sides. Griner was taken into custody in mid-February at a Moscow airport, but the news was kept under wraps until a Russian news agency revealed it more than two weeks later, after the invasion of Ukraine was underway.

The Griner camp clearly wanted to keep the case out of the public eye until the two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA All-Star was safely ferried out of Russia.

Even now, those closest to the player have been reticent to make any comment beyond her agent confirming Griner was detained after Russian customs officials said they found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in her luggage. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, thanked everyone for their support of the star player, but said little else in an Instagram post.

This wouldn’t be the first time a high-profile person has essentially been taken hostage by a country in the pursuit of larger foreign-relations goals.

Just this week, Venezuela released two Americans who had been imprisoned in the South American country over dubious charges, not so coincidentally as President Nicolas Maduro signaled a desire for improved relations with the U.S.

One of those released, oil executive Gustavo Cardenas, was imprisoned for more than four years in Venezuela. He described the experience as a “nightmare.”

At the moment, there is no indication that Griner is being held on trumped-up charges. Maybe this was just a lapse in judgment, which has put her at risk of being subjected to stricter punishments for cannabis oil under Russian law.

But the war in Ukraine certainly complicates matters, at least raising the possibility that Russia is dragging its feet on Griner’s case to give Putin a potential bargaining chip in a negotiated settlement or to lessen the sting of crushing economic sanctions.

The State Department can designate someone as as a “wrongful detainee,” entitling an American citizen to far more resources than a standard criminal case in another country.

It doesn’t appear Griner has been placed in that category, at least not yet. Strict Russian guidelines on COVID-19 have likely extended Griner’s period of isolation, making it tougher for the U.S. consulate to get a full picture of the case.

Hopefully, in the very near future, Griner will be back home with her loved ones, this nightmare behind her.

Until then, let’s keep her at the forefront of our concerns.

Griner’s fate is far more important than the new baseball labor deal, or who makes the NCAA Tournament, or pretty much anything else happening in the fantasy world of sports.

This is real life.

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The first time playwright Doug Wright encountered Oscar Levant was around 2009 while working on a screenplay for a proposed but never made Steven Spielberg film about George Gershwin.

“It’s impossible to research Gershwin’s life without encountering the wonderfully acerbic and grouchy Oscar Levant,” Wright says. “He was one of Gershwin’s dearest friends, and I found him utterly fascinating.”

In the 1940s and ’50s Levant was a household name. He was a bestselling author, radio and television host, quiz show panelist, actor, brilliant pianist and composer as well as a popular interpreter of Gershwin’s music (he topped the charts with his 1945 rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue”). Levant was also an edgy loose cannon and a master of the stinging one-liner who suffered from mental illness.

Wright, whose plays “I Am My Own Wife” and “War Paint” were previously staged at the Goodman Theatre, now brings “Good Night, Oscar,” his new play about a specific period in Levant’s life, to the theater for its world premiere. Sean Hayes, best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Jack on the sitcom “Will & Grace,” portrays Levant. Director Lisa Peterson helms the production.

It was about 10 years ago when Wright’s interest in Levant was revived when theatrical producers Barbara Whitman and Beth Williams approached him about writing a play with Levant as its central character. The producing team already had Hayes in mind to portray Levant.

Wright says the collaboration was made in heaven as Hayes had his own longtime interest in Levant. About two decades ago, a friend told Hayes he should play Levant. He’d never heard of Levant but was curious and did his research.

“I just loved him,” Hayes says. “His wit is just so fast and clever and there are so few people with that kind of talent. And I was really drawn to his struggles in life.”

Hayes grew up in Glen Ellyn and studied piano at Illinois State University. He was music director and performed in productions at Pheasant Run Theater in St. Charles for a short time before leaving at age 25 for Los Angeles and a successful career in television and film.

Adds Wright: “Sean is one of the great comic actors of our age. This role is truly out of the box and unlike anything he’s done before.”

Levant is little known today, and Hayes and Wright want to change that. It was a research-heavy project, says Wright, a Pulitzer Prize winner for “I Am My Own Wife.”

“My first task was to catch up with Sean because he knew so much,” Wright says, with a laugh. Luckily, he adds, Levant wrote three “very hilarious memoirs, so I had those to draw from as well as biographies, and videos.” He also drew upon the knowledge of Levant experts like cabaret star Michael Feinstein, a scholar of Levant’s music.

Wright found he was moved by Levant’s life story because it has many elements common in today’s entertainment world.

“Oscar’s a brilliant raconteur and a hilarious comedian, but so much of that comedy stems from a very deep well of pain,” Wright says. “I think that makes him a really ripe subject if you want to write about comedy, its true origin, what are and are not suitable subjects for humor and what is the personal cost comedians pay when they hold up their own lives as fodder for art and amusement.”

The plot of the play is based on several incidents in Levant’s life, but Wright also employed some dramatic license. The set-up for the play was based on an actual event when, committed to the mental health wing at Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles by his wife June, Levant was desperate to get out to do an episode of his own popular talk show and managed to get a four-hour pass.

Wright sets his play around the same time in 1958 but transfers the television appearance to the NBC studios as Levant, fresh from the hospital, prepares for an appearance on “Tonight Starring Jack Paar.” (Levant and Paar were real-life friends).

“I wanted to tell that story, but I wanted to do it in a way that people would recognize and Paar’s show was much more celebrated,” Wright says. “He and Paar were actually great friends.”

It’s thought Levant may have been manic depressive. He spent a significant time in mental institutions and received a host of prescription drugs to which he became addicted. He spoke freely about his deteriorating mental health, his neuroses and hypochondria on live television. He’s been called “America’s first publicly dysfunctional celebrity.”

After Hayes dove into Levant’s life story, he found many shared connections — a love for music, a talent for comedy and a mental health struggle. “Oddly I shared too much in common with Oscar,” Hayes said. “I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in the past and studied intense piano for years as did Oscar. I relate mostly to his plight and his kind of place in the world although I don’t suffer nearly as deeply as he did with anxiety and depression.”

In today’s world it’s difficult to imagine just how taboo this all was for Levant in the 1950s.

“Before Dave Chappelle, before Richard Pryor, before George Carlin, before Lenny Bruce, there was Oscar Levant,” Hayes says. “I think Oscar needed the laughter in his life. In a sense, I think he viewed it as therapy so that he could feel a sense of normalcy. It’s corny to say that laughter is the best medicine but for him I think it was.”

Wright feels that Levant paid a price for his entertaining public persona. He hopes the play “restores our cultural awareness of Levant.”

“He did what all artists do, which is carve out a piece of his heart and hold it up for public inspection and hope that people recognize themselves in it. But I think that all comes at a cost to your privacy and sometimes your well-being. It’s a certain kind of bloodletting when your work is that personal and that naked, and I think Oscar did pay a price for it.”

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New Bears general manager Ryan Poles has started his rebuild.

The Bears have an agreement in place to trade star outside linebacker Khalil Mack to the Chargers for a second-round draft pick this year and a sixth-rounder in 2023, per NFL Network. The trade cannot become official until the start of the league season next week and is contingent on Mack passing a physical.

Mack reunites with Brandon Staley, the Chargers head coach and former Bears assistant who was Mack’s position coach when they traded for him on the eve of the 2018 season.

The Bears gain draft capital as they begin to build around quarterback Justin Fields — and undo what, at the time, was considered a franchise-altering move. The Bears never won a playoff game after trading two first-round picks, among other things, to the Raiders for Mack. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons with the team, totaling 29 sacks and missing two out of a possible 48 games.

Mack got off to an electric start last season before hurting his foot in Week 3 against the Browns. The injury never improved and he eventually opted for surgery, finishing the season with six sacks in seven games. It was the first time since his rookie season that Mack did not make the Pro Bowl.

The Bears made Mack the richest defensive player in NFL history when they gave him a six-year, $141 million contract — with $60 million guaranteed at signing and $90 million in total guarantees.

Mack was due to have a $30.15 million cap charge in 2022. Trading Mack means the Bears have to eat $24 million in dead cap — the fourth-most for any player and the most ever for someone who doesn’t play quarterback. The Bears are free and clear after 2022, though — when they figure to be more competitive than they will be this upcoming season anyway.

Moving Mack appears to be a concession from Poles that the Bears need an infusion of draft picks and young players to compete, long-term, against Aaron Rodgers — and others — in the NFC North. The second-round pick from the Chargers becomes the Bears’ second-highest pick of this year’s draft — they dealt their first-round pick in the Fields trade.

It also leaves open the possibility that Poles will look to move other Bears veterans — fellow edge rusher Robert Quinn set the franchise sacks record — between now and the draft.

Speaking last week, Poles hinted that he was looking for ways to add to his draft pick stash.

“Obviously you want a lot of picks,” he said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “But that’s just the hand we were dealt. And we’ll be open-minded on how we can create more picks.”

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