SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers apparently finished second in the competition for Khalil Mack, though they maintain their trade offer to the Raiders was every bit as good as the package that made the Chicago Bears the winner.
“I think you’d have to ask the Raiders,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday. “But it takes two teams to get it done, and we went as hard as we could on it.”
The 49ers will face Mack on Sunday for the first time with his new team, as the playoff-bound Bears visit Levi’s Stadium.
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Previously, 49ers general manager John Lynch said on 95.7 The Game that he believes San Francisco’s offer to the Raiders was a “better deal.”
Prior to the first game of the regular season, the Raiders and Bears struck an agreement that sent Mack to Chicago for first-round draft picks in 2019 and 2020, a third-round selection in 2020 and a sixth-round choice in 2019. The Raiders sent Mack, a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional fifth-round selection in 2020 to the Bears.
The Bears immediately signed Mack to a six-year, $141 million contract to make him the game’s highest-paid defensive player.
“The Khalil transaction, that was a long process,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said Wednesday on a conference call with Bay Area reporters.
San Francisco 49ers
[RELATED: Mack, Bears crowned NFC North champs]
Mack has proven to be a difference-maker for the Bears with 12.5 sacks, one interception, six passes broken up, six forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. Chicago has clinched the NFC North title and is in contention for a first-round bye in the playoffs.
“I faced him for four years when I was with Kansas City, so I knew what he could do as a player,” said Nagy, who was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator before landing the Bears job. “But to get to know him as a person and what kind of leader he is and how he completely has helped elevate everybody else as who they are as people and players has been awesome.”
Nagy said he was not sure which teams were offering the most competition for Mack’s services. He said he and Bears general manager Ryan Pace concerned themselves with only what they could control.
“You never know, 100 percent, when you’re right in the middle of it, because there are so many different rumors that fly around,” Nagy said. “We were just concerned about what we could control, and making sure we did everything we possibly could to get him. And that’s what we did. We couldn’t control the other teams and what they were doing, we could just control what we could do and that’s what happened.”