Star pass rusher Khalil Mack and the Las Vegas Raiders (then in Oakland) were unable to come to an agreement on a new deal back in 2018.
After refusing to play during the whole preseason, the All-Pro and former Defensive Player of the Year was eventually dealt to the Chicago Bears by the Raiders in a huge trade.
The San Francisco 49ers were one of the many teams interested in trading for Mack at the time, even though he ultimately ended up in Chicago. The team was eager to sign Mack, but the Raiders made a different decision, and the pass rusher for the Chargers now knows why.
According to Mack, the 49ers made the Raiders the best trade offer, but the team declined to send him to a team that had so much potential to be a great defense, according to Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area. Mack made this claim during an appearance on Green Light with Chris Long:
“You see, they sent me to Chicago, which was ostensibly supposed to be the worse option,” Mack continued. “I felt that San Francisco was among the top offers; technically, they had the best deal, but they wouldn’t accept it from San Francisco because they were aware of the potential of what might be or might occur.”
The 49ers were just starting to gel under new general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan at the time, so adding a player like Mack to base their defense on would have been extremely beneficial. Mack feels that the Raiders did not want to assist their rivals in the Bay Area by trading them a player of Mack’s caliber and then watching them achieve great success.
Additionally, Lynch has previously expressed the belief that the Niners presented the best trade proposal for Mack at that particular time, which is what the team believes actually transpired.
However, the Raiders do not necessarily agree with them just because they think that to be the case. They believed that the Chicago offer was superior, and that the Raiders would be better off selecting draft picks from the team they anticipate will be worse in the near future since it will help them acquire better players.
Ultimately, it all came together because, despite having a horrible season in 2018, the 49ers were able to select Nick Bosa in the following draft and go on to win a Super Bowl right away.