Khalil Mack will no longer have to get on a plane to go see his younger brother play football. In fact, the perennial Pro Bowler likely will be in the same locker room the next time Ledarius Mack puts on a helmet and uniform.
General manager Ryan Pace confirmed Saturday night that the Bears are expected to sign Ledarius—who like his brother was an edge rusher at the University of Buffalo—as an undrafted free agent.
Ledarius spent the past two seasons at Buffalo, appearing in 27 games and recording 10 sacks and four forced fumbles. The 6-1, 240-pounder was named second-team All-MAC last year after registering 8.0 sacks, 12 tackles-for-loss and three forced fumbles.
"With Khalil's brother, that's definitely something that we're looking forward to," Pace said Saturday night during a conference call with the media. "It's something that worked out for us and it'll be unique having two brothers on the same team."
The Bears have yet to announce the signings of any undrafted free agents.
Khalil Mack was selected by the Raiders with the fifth pick in the 2014 draft after being named the MAC defensive player of the year and first-team All-American in 2013. At Buffalo, he set an NCAA career record with 16 forced fumbles and tied another all-time mark with 75 tackles-for-loss.
Total package: Coach Matt Nagy is excited about plugging Bears top draft pick Cole Kmet into the 'Y' tight end position—which requires a versatile player capable of catching passes and blocking. The Chicago area native was selected in the second round with the 43rd pick.
"When you see a player of Cole's magnitude and what he's done in his career at Notre Dame and where he's at growth-wise—growing as a run blocker, as a pass protector—and then also you can see the highlights of what he can do with that football in his hands, he's the total package," Nagy said.
Preparing for the draft, Nagy was impressed with what he saw on tape from Kmet, who established career highs last season at Notre Dame in all receiving categories with 60 receptions, 691 yards and six touchdowns despite missing the first three games with a broken collarbone.
"We were joking he's like 'Robocop,'" Nagy said. "He can block, he can catch, he can do a lot of good things. You never know how things are going to go. But local kid, just a super person and a really special player, so we're excited to see the growth in him."
On the wall: Nagy revealed that his basement walls—seen during television coverage of the draft—are covered with his call sheets from the 2018 season when the Bears won the NFC North with a 12-4 record.
"We were trying to figure out what to do, where to put them, a couple years ago," Nagy said. "We decided that down there in the basement is a good little spot in one of our rooms. That room hasn't been used very much. That first night, things were very tight quarters in my office. So I figured to open it up a little bit and let the kids run around. So, that's what that is."
When Nagy was shown on television during the draft, he usually was alongside with his four sons and the family dog, Tuddy.
Be like Mike: Like literally millions of sports fans, Nagy is captivated by "The Last Dance" documentary about Michael Jordan and the final season of the Bulls dynasty that's being shown Sunday nights on ESPN.
The first two hourlong episodes of the 10-part series debuted last Sunday.
"It's unbelievable," Nagy said. "Last weekend watching those two hours when it came out, I think I heard or saw somebody else say they could have watched all 10 episodes back-to-back-to-back and I was the same way.
"It's just amazing; what a great time to see possibly the greatest athlete to ever play and just the way he handled his teammates, his opponents, the amount of competitiveness he had. There's not another person that I've talked to in the sports world that didn't get fired up about that whole deal."
