In front of a packed house at Halas Hall Monday night, Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips made the organization's goal clear.
"We're just dying for a winner," Phillips said. "We're not afraid to say that we're out for championships. That's what we want to do."
Phillips, along with coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace, joined Jeff Joniak for a special edition of the Bears Coaches Show live from Halas Hall. The trio spent an hour talking and reflected on training camp, looked ahead to the regular season and broke down the team's most recent addition of Khalil Mack.
On Saturday, the Bears pulled off a blockbuster trade to land Mack from the Oakland Raiders.
"It's energizing to our whole building and obviously our fan base too," Pace said to a room full of cheering Bears fans. "It kind of follows the mindset that starts at the very top with our ownership. Be aggressive; be calculated. And everything we're doing is all about winning games, and this guy is definitely going to help win games for the Bears."
The move immediately adds a huge piece to a defense that was already near the top of the league a season ago. Mack is a two-time All-Pro player and was the 2016 NFL defensive player of the year. Last year, Mack was the only player in the league with at least 75 tackles, 10 sacks, five passes defensed and a forced fumble and fumble recovery.
"I obviously know who he is as a player from playing against him for the past four years in the same division," Nagy said. "Just listening to him talk, just seeing it in his eyes how passionate he is, you understand, and you appreciate it, and you're sure as heck happy that he's on your team."
Mack was the final piece the Bears added to their 53-man roster, but not the only one. The team had a busy offseason. On the offensive side of the ball the Bears signed free agent wide receivers Taylor Gabriel and Allen Robinson II and tight end Trey Burton.
"There was obviously a lot of action this off season," Pace said. "I feel like we're always still trying to improve. Even now in looking at it, there are always things we could tweak or add."
The coach and GM duo also touted the ability of one of their returning players — second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
"What sticks out is just his eagerness to learn, his eagerness to get better," Pace said. "You're always striving for your most important players and your best players to be your best workers, and Mitch fits that. He's always doing more."
After his first training camp with Trubisky, Nagy said that the quarterback still surprises him.
"He's more competitive than I thought he was going into it," Nagy said. "I've been around a lot of different quarterbacks that have a lot of different personalities, and this is the guy we want. He has so much talent. He wants to do everything the right way all the time."
The Bears enter the season with a quarterback that has all the makings of a winner, new offensive weapons and a buffed up defense. But even in his first year, Nagy knows talk is cheap.
"The message that we're all trying to send, and that I'm personally trying to send to the team is you don't win anything on paper," Nagy said. "We need to go out there and play these games, and we need to show what we can do."
Pace stressed that part of the process toward the bigger goal is taking it one day at a time.
"Now that we're getting into the season here our focus is on a game-by-game approach," Pace said. "Right now it's straight on the Packers, but as we build this team, what drives us every day is to win championships."
