Rams Reportedly Tried to Trade for Khalil Mack Before Bears Deal

What's better than having one of the two highest-paid defensive players in the NFL?

Having both of them.

Los Angeles Rams executive vice president of football operations Kevin Demoff said Wednesday that the team attempted to trade for Khalil Mack before the Chicago Bears pulled off the move.

"We offered a pretty aggressive package and they came back and said, 'We just think you're going to pick too low,'" Demoff said, per Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times.

The Bears traded their 2019 and 2020 first-round picks along with their 2020 third-round pick and 2019 sixth-round pick in exchange for Mack, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2020 conditional fifth-round pick.

The Rams signed Aaron Donald to a six-year, $135 million contract that made him the highest-paid defensive player in football for less than a week. The Bears inked Mack to a six-year, $141 million contract after adding him in the trade.

Figuring out the financials of how the Rams would have made the deal work are a little confounding. They already signed long-term contracts with Todd Gurley, Ross Havenstein and Brandin Cooks before agreeing to the Donald deal. Each of those contracts put the players at or among the highest-paid players at their respective positions.

That said, it's clear the Rams have gone all-in on accumulating the most possible talent for this season. In addition to trading for Cooks, the Rams also acquired Ndamukong Suh and Aqib Talib to shore up what might be the best defense in football.

Demoff's all-in approach may backfire in a couple of years if the Rams don't win a Super Bowl. But Demoff admitting he tried to acquire Mack makes it clear he was willing to go all in even more.