Before the season began, the Oakland Raiders traded All-Pro pass rusher Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears for a haul of draft picks including a pair of first-round selections.
To make sure Mack wouldn’t be going anywhere, Chicago quickly inked him to a massive six-year, $141 million contract extension averaging $23.5 million per year.
The league’s highest-paid non-quarterback, Mack’s deal may actually be a bargain because he was the most valuable acquisition in the NFL this season, according to former NFL agent and salary cap expert Joel Corry.
Despite the huge contract – which includes the fourth-largest overall guarantees ever in a NFL contract at $90 million – Mack has been worth it for Chicago as he helped the Bears get off to a 3-1 start and “was the driving force behind the Bears capturing the NFC North and becoming the NFL’s most formidable defense,” according to Curry.
On the other side of the coin, Sam Bradford – who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals prior to this season – was the worst acquisition in the NFL this year.
Bradford wasn’t good to start the year and was benched three games into the season for rookie Josh Rosen. He was inactive for the next five weeks before being released. In all, Bradford made $15,937,500 for his eight-game stint with the Cardinals despite being on the field for just 135 of Arizona’s 942 offensive snaps (14.3 percent).
Joining Bradford as dishonorable mentions are Kelvin Benjamin (worse use of a contract year) and Blake Bortles (worst contract-year extension for a team).
With Mack and the Bears on the positive side of the ledger are Dee Ford (best use of contract year) and Eric Ebron (offensive signing of the year).
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