Bears land Khalil Mack, 3 others on All-Pro team
Bears coach Matt Nagy's first response after being told OLB Khalil Mack, S Eddie Jackson, CB Kyle Fuller and RS Tarik Cohen were selected to the Associated Press NFL All-Pro team was: "No offense?"
Nagy was only joking, well aware that Friday's announcement was just the latest example of the newfound respect his team has earned leaguewide by virtue of its 12-4, turnaround season.
It's the third first-team All-Pro berth for Mack, while the three other Bears were chosen for the first time. All four players, along with teammate Akiem Hicks were voted last month to the Pro Bowl. But the Bears are more focused on Sunday's team goal of defeating the Eagles in a first-round playoff game.
"Any of those individual awards are always awesome," Nagy said. "It's great for them individually. As they get older, they can always say that. (But) I think every one of those guys you talk to, and I know it for a fact when we talked about the Pro Bowl with them, is they were all focused on not playing that game."
The common sentiment was that the Bears Pro Bowlers all hoped they'd be preparing for the Super Bowl rather than playing in a relatively meaningless all-star game.
"But it's neat," Nagy said. "To me, it's always the guys around you when you get those awards, and that's the best part about it."
Mack led the Bears with 12.5 sacks, 18 QB hits and 6 forced fumbles, which tied for third in the league, and he returned his only interception 27 yards for a touchdown. Fuller tied for the NFL lead with 7 interceptions and led the league with 21 pass breakups.
"It speaks volumes to the guys around here, the coaches (defensive coordinator) Vic (Fangio), (OLB) coach (Brandon) Staley, and my teammates as well," Mack said. "Everybody has a hand in that. (You) see it on the field, and you see it on Sundays, and that's what it's really all about."
Jackson was fourth in the NFL with 6 interceptions, and he returned two of them for touchdowns. He also returned a fumble for a touchdown. Jackson's 5 defensive touchdowns are the most in the NFL since 2015, even though he didn't enter the league until 2017, as a fourth-round draft choice out of Alabama.
In Cohen's role as the Bears' Swiss army knife, he was most impressive as a punt returner, averaging 12.5 yards on 33 attempts and leading the NFL with 414 punt-return yards. Cohen put up huge numbers at North Carolina A&T, a smaller FCS school, but he admitted he had some concerns about his ability to make the leap to the NFL.
"Coming into the draft, I had doubts about the jump to the next level," the 5-foot-6, 181-pound Cohen said. "I wasn't at the highest level in college, so to jump to the highest level, overall, I had doubts. I got into camp and I got into the flow of things."
Cohen was also a fourth-round draft pick (119th overall) in 2017, taken seven spots after Jackson, making it one of the better fourth rounds in recent NFL history for Bears G.M. Ryan Pace and his scouting staff.
The three Bears defenders all played vital roles on a unit that led the league with 36 takeaways, 27 interceptions, 5 interception returns for touchdowns, lowest passer rating allowed (72.9) and rushing yards allowed (80.0 per game).
• Bob LeGere is a senior writer at Pro Football Weekly. Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter at @BobLeGere or @PFWeekly.