Mack should show Bears what it takes

Every new coach talks about changing the culture.

They aren’t talking about the art on the walls or the music piped into the locker room. They are referring to gradual changes in philosophy. To illustrate such shifts, coaches often search for metaphors. Bears coach Matt Nagy, for instance, found a convenient one outside his office window last summer in the ongoing construction project at Halas Hall.

That was Nagy’s most obvious example of the way the Bears culture has changed in 2018 — until last Sunday against the Patriots. Then Khalil Mack tried to play on one good ankle. Hello, cultural flashpoint.

Everybody in Chicago knows the Bears haven’t been the same team since Mack injured his right ankle against the Dolphins. Nobody can blame Mack for trying to pretend it never happened.

Tough guys earn their reputations. Football players play.

Since coming into the league in 2014, Mack has played in 70 straight games, a remarkable streak considering the impact he makes as one of the NFL’s most dominant pass rushers. Mack playing at 70 percent makes the Bears a better defense than any potential replacement operating at 100 percent. You didn’t need a trained eye to see how his gimpy ankle limited him against the Patriots, especially when covering running backs on pass routes — which, for reasons that escape me, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio thought was a good idea.

But you also didn’t need a degree in sports psychology to understand the big-picture importance of Mack trying to play through pain in today’s bubble-wrap sports environment.

This is what leadership looks like: The NFL’s most valuable defensive player limping around the line of scrimmage, doing everything he can to help his team win. This is a powerful example for teammates that will permeate the organization for months after the Patriots left town with a victory. This is why Mack should play Sunday against the Jets unless X-rays or MRI results make the decision for him.

The Bears need every possible resource to revive hope and can’t afford a third straight defeat, not to an inferior Jets team with a rookie quarterback and injury-depleted roster.

The Bears haven’t earned the right to take anything for granted. A valid debate around Chicago this week revolved around whether Mack should sit out the Jets game to get healthy for the second half of the season. But he still forces offensive coordinators to account for him on every play. The Patriots certainly felt it necessary, devoting double teams and chip blocks to Mack even after he looked limited.

Even if Mack lacks his typical explosiveness because he can’t push off his bum ankle, every snap he lines up on the edge gives Jets quarterback Sam Darnold something else to consider and shaky left tackle Kelvin Beachum — coming off his worst game — another reason to worry. Mack replacements Aaron Lynch and Isaiah Irving simply don’t intimidate anybody like that.

From a broader perspective — the part that involves changing the culture — the Bears benefit immeasurably from seeing their highest-paid player approach every Sunday like an undrafted free agent with something to prove.

Consider that Mack signed a six-year, $141 million contract with the Bears that guaranteed him $90 million and pays him $7 million in base salary for 2018 — $411,764 every game.

How refreshing that he wants to earn it. Mack’s mentality proves how right Fangio was last month in saying the Pro Bowl pass rusher “didn’t have an ounce of prima donna in his body.” By insisting to play, Mack isn’t letting his defensive teammates down as much as challenging them to care about winning as much as he does.

So now it’s their turn to pick up Mack the way he carried them in September. Pass rusher Leonard Floyd can realize how the course of his NFL career hinges on the second half of his third season and do something to alter the perception that the former first-rounder is a bust.

Defensive end Akiem Hicks can return to his Pro Bowl level after an effort against the Patriots that deserved, in Hicks’ own assessment, a “hard C-minus.” Linebackers Danny Trevathan and Roquan Smith can fly around with abandon. Safeties Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos can rediscover the art of tackling. Cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara can catch the ball when Darnold inevitably will throw it to them. Fangio can call a smarter game after a rare clunker when he let Brady get inside his head.

If the Bears defense wants to be considered elite again, it will require as much tenacity as technique. It will call for every player to fight through adversity as willingly as the defense’s best one has, for the group to follow Mack’s lead.

That culture of accountability promises to linger much longer for the Bears than a sprained ankle.