There’s a lot of noise that Poles is making calls. It does appear we’re going to do something before the deadline. Most of the rumors are centered on Mack returning. There is also a fair amount of smoke around DeForest Buckner.

I would take either of those guys. Buckner has 4.0 sacks, Mack has 3.0 (in one fewer game). Mack also just had a bye, so he will have some fresher legs, especially with another bye for the Bears coming up.

Cap hit is going to be the biggest factor. From my own math, Mack would cost $4.89M to the acquiring team. Buckner would cost $7.94M. So both could be had under the Bears current cap. Since they would be taking a spot within the top 51 salaries, they would bump Loving off, reducing the new cap hit to the salary cap by 891K.

The Bears have approximately $9.2M available, so Mack would cost about $4M to that number, leaving just over $5M on the cap. Buckner would cost $7.1M, leaving just over $2M on the cap. I don't know what performance bonuses are out there, and those have to be taken into consideration. So my assumption is Mack is way more realistic than Buckner unless the Bears are able to move a player on their top 51 who has cap savings if traded post-June-1.

A Jaylon trade would be amazing. Save $15.5M on the cap, get Buckner and Mack AND save $4M in cap space.