The Khalil Mack situation just got a little clearer for the Chargers, and it points in one direction: a trade.
Los Angeles is sitting at 0-5, the season has gone off the rails, and Mack has still been one of the few bright spots. That has made the conversation around him pretty straightforward for a lot of fans. If the Chargers are headed nowhere, then moving Mack would at least give him a chance to chase a championship somewhere else.
For a while, there was one possible obstacle keeping that from becoming real. Mack has been on a series of one-year deals with the Chargers, each worth $18 million, and the assumption was that a no-trade clause might be attached even if it had never been widely reported.
That part, according to The Athletic’s Noah Furtado, is not true. “Mack does not have a no-trade clause in his one-year, $18 million deal, The Athletic learned, despite multiple reports in recent weeks stating he does.”
That matters because it removes a hurdle if the Chargers decide to deal him. It also gives the team more control over where he could end up, since they would have the ability to weigh one offer against another rather than working around Mack’s approval.
There also doesn’t appear to be much reason for Los Angeles to keep trying to force this thing forward. The Chargers have already tied their long-term edge future to first-round pick Akheem Mesidor and Tuli Tuipulotu, who needs a contract extension.
So yes, the season stings. But if the Chargers move Mack and he lands with a contender, that would at least be a clean ending to a messy year. A reunion with the Chicago Bears is the name that keeps coming up, and with the contract question now out of the way, there’s nothing standing in the way of a deal happening soon.
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