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CHICAGO (AP) — The NFL’s oldest rivalry takes on a different look to open the league’s 100th season.It’s a role reversal for the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.A year after new coach Matt Nagy took quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears to Lambeau Field to kick off the season https://www.thebearsfanshop.com/Mike-Singletary-Jersey , the script flipped, with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and new coach Matt LaFleur coming to Soldier Field.Article continues below ...“It was always big Chicago against little Green Bay,” Rodgers said. “We’ve held our own over the years and it’s always been a great rivalry.“It’s one of the special ones in the history of professional sports.”In Rodgers’ experience the Packers trust, even using a new offense for the first time since he became starter in 2008.“He’s been there before, he’s got a lot of game reps,” LaFleur said of Rodgers. “The one thing you can always find comfort in is that you know the moment won’t be too big for him. He’s played in a lot of big games.”Rodgers has been a particular problem for the Bears, beating them in 16 of 21 starts. Last year Rodgers shook off a 20-point deficit in the second-half and a knee injury to lead a 24-23 win over Khalil Mack and the Bears.Chicago returned the favor in December and ended Green Bay’s five-game series winning streak to clinch the NFC North title en route to a 12-4 record.Now it’s a matter for Rodgers of using an offense emphasizing more running and deception while facing the NFL’s top defense at intercepting passes (27).“It’s so new, it’s so different than what we’ve done in the past,” Rodgers said.The Packers ran less than any team in the NFL last year, and look to get running back Aaron Jones more carries.“Now we’re throwing new things at them with personnel groupings and motions and alignments and movement and adjustments that they haven’t seen from us,” Rodgers said.The Bears have revealed nothing offensively after sitting starters in the preseason, including Trubisky.“He’s mentally grown, he really has,” Nagy said. “That’s what we look for, and now we have to do it on the field.”The defense also sat out preseason, but inactivity failed to slow Mack in last year’s opener. With no training camp and only five practices after his trade from Oakland, Mack decimated Green Bay’s offense with a strip sack, fumble recovery, and a touchdown return after an interception.He’s aching to face Green Bay again as the Bears seek their first season-opening win since 2013.“Oh man, I’m so ready to hit somebody other than my teammate,” Mack said. “You know what I mean?”SAFETY SWITCHThe Packers will start free agent safety acquisition Adrian Amos, the former Bears safety, while his Bears replacement is former Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.Clinton-Dix was traded by the Packers to Washington last year before signing for one year with the Bears.“He’s come in and he’s been a great pro,” Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said. “All we ask these guys to do every single day — it doesn’t matter if they were here before or they’re new coming in — is what coach Nagy’s expectation was. You come in and earn your way. Every single day he’s done it.”Amos is one of eight Packers starters on defense who are different than in last year’s opener.CHESS MATCHElements of surprise are at work in this matchup.The Bears had to watch tape on Tennessee from 2018 to determine how LaFleur’s offense operates. He was Titans offensive coordinator last year. Pagano, the former Colts coach and Ravens assistant, has altered the Bears’ defensive look somewhat.“I’m sure they’re studying all the tape, just like we’re going back and looking at Chuck from all the way back to Baltimore,” LaFleur said. “So yeah, again, it just goes back to having plays that start off looking the same that are different to try and keep them off a little bit.”CHICAGO GUYRodgers disagreed with the notion he has a hatred for Chicago.“I have a lot of respect for the city of Chicago and their fans,” Rodgers said. “I grew up a fan of Michael Jordan and one of the channels we had on our 10-channel TV was WGN. So we got the Cubs games Dick Butkus Color Rush Jersey , as well.”100 YEARSTrubisky expressed how little the NFL hype machine about 100 seasons means to players.“It really doesn’t matter, all the hoopla, kicking off the NFL season, the 100th season,” Trubisky said. “If we get caught up in the moment and you let your adrenaline take over and you don’t do what the team needs you to do, then I think you could do things that are out of character and put your team in a bad spot.”INJURY CONCERNSThe availability of Bears tight end Trey Burton will be a game-time decision due to a groin injury suffered last week. A groin injury also kept him out of last season’s playoff loss to Philadelphia.The Packers likely will start rookie Ty Summers at inside linebacker due to a torn pectoral muscle to starter Oren Burks and a knee injury to backup Curtis Bolton. The sack that I hope the NFL’s MVP voters reflect on before they decide whether or not to select Khalil Mack as the 2018 league MVP was not a Khalil Mack sack.The sack was a Leonard Floyd sack, and it came on 2nd and goal against the Packers on Sunday, with 24 seconds remaining and Aaron Rodgers shooting for the desperate touchdown-onside kick-field goal sequence to tie the game and stop the Bears from clinching the North.Mack rushed full bore on the right side of the Packers line, getting outside and upfield of both Green Bay linemen tasked with blocking him. As he neared Rodgers, who was looking left, he ducked under right tackle Jason Spriggs and kept the clock ticking on 12......and while all this was happening on the right side of the protection, Leonard Floyd was on the left side hanging back, looking for the pass, staying in front of left tackle David Bakhtiari and shooting his 33 1/8-inch arms into Rodgers’ field-of-vision.Finally, with Mack about to clear Spriggs and Eddie Goldman up the gut as well, Rodgers spun to his left. That move freed Floyd, who took one large step past Bakhtiari and reached his right arm out, catching Rodgers likely by surprise. Floyd closed on Rodgers with his left hand, wound his own body like a top and uncorked a spinning, heaving sack, tossing Rodgers to the grass one split-second before Mack arrived.Floyd’s momentum then carried him further upfield, and he let loose a cheer and did the Rodgers insurance belt celebration. Mack celebrated too, with a confident fist pump. It was Floyd’s play but it said everything you need to know about Mack’s impact on the Bears this year. It was the rush and the cheer, the pre-sack impact and the post-sack celebration, what he does for teammates on individual plays and what he has done for them broadly all season long.It was, in all its punctuated glory, the reason why Khalil Mack should be the 2018 NFL MVP.The debate around the 2018 NFL MVP award — specifically, the Associated Press NFL MVP — is hinging on the usual suspects, or more broadly the usual position: quarterback. Patrick Mahomes is the frontrunner. Drew Brees is right behind him. Tom Brady, Jared Goff and Philip Rivers are all getting looks, with Rivers’ stock on the rise.There are also folks in favor of Todd Gurley. I suppose Alvin Kamara will garner some attention. Kareem Hunt would be in the mix if he were still in the league. But those are also the usual suspects William Perry Jersey , because they are running backs.Quarterbacks and running backs. In a sport of 53 players with 22 men on the field, a sport where, as Olin Kreutz says, “Eleven guys have to dance together,” a sport allegedly comprising three equal “phases” — well, in that sport, either a quarterback or running back has been named league MVP every year going back to 1987. That’s 31 straight MVPs given to two positions.Prior to ‘86, with the exception of the 9-game season in 1982, we saw QBs and RBs win 13 straight MVPs. That’s all quarterbacks and running backs winning MVP in anything approaching a full season from 1972 to 2017.The one outlier was a havoc-wreaking edge-rushing linebacker who led the league in 1986 with 20.5 sacks. You might have heard of him.“Wait a minute, we’re talking about Lawrence Taylor now,” Bill Belichick said earlier this year when asked to compare Mack, his upcoming opponent, to Taylor, his former defensive star. “I’m not putting anybody in Lawrence Taylor’s class. Put everybody down below that. With a lot of respect to a lot of good players, we’re talking about Lawrence Taylor.”That was fair. Taylor was the first person to win Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive seasons, the first to win it twice, the first to win it three times, was the best player on two Super Bowl champions and was a first ballot Hall of Famer. Whether discussing Taylor’s peak or his career vs. Mack at this point, putting Mack and all others a notch below arguably the greatest defensive player in the game’s history is a reasonable assessment.But many defenders since Taylor have transcended defense and flourished as unstoppable (or nearly unstoppable) destructive forces around which a champion was built, from Deion Sanders to Reggie White to Ray Lewis, along with players like Brian Urlacher, Ed Reed and of course J.J. Watt who had some combination of dominance and team greatness as to at some point warrant MVP consideration.Aaron Donald is someone who should be in that discussion, but for my money, I’m taking Mack. We know the defensive credentials. He is tied for the league-lead with six forced fumbles and is sixth in sacks with 12.5 despite missing two games to injury. Of the three players with six forced fumbles, he is the only one who also has either an interception, defensive touchdown or recovered fumble, and he has all three.In short, you can’t stop Mack without holding him, as this photo gallery from Lester reveals:Yet that is all about the personal achievement. For MVP conversation, a player must help the rest of the team, both in production and intangibles. Mack has done that https://www.thebearsfanshop.com/Mike-Ditka-Jersey , helping launch a boom in production from the rest of the Bears defenders. Akiem Hicks, Kyle Fuller and Eddie Jackson are going to the Pro Bowl, and all three of Mack’s fellow linebackers are Pro Bowl alternates.They’ve played great, obviously, but Mack enhances them. He is the best player on a defense with the following NFL rankings:Takeaways: 1stDefensive TDs: 1stInterceptions: 1stPasses defensed: 1st1st downs allowed: 1stRushing TDs allowed: 1stRushing yards allowed: 2ndPoints allowed: 3rdYards allowed: 3rdSacks: 4thPassing yards allowed: 10thPhoto by Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesThe Bears were a top-10 defense last year, which sounds great until you remember that there are 32 teams in the NFL, placing us just in the top 3rd. The 2017 Bears were never called “the best defense in the NFL,” and I don’t believe we would have reached that perch this year without Mack. Vegas agrees with me. The Bears shot from 100-1 odds to win Super Bowl LIII prior to the Mack trade on Sept. 1, all the way to 40-1 after it.We are now tied for 6th at 14-1.That steep incline is not solely attributable to Mack, of course — this is after all a team game. But he’s played the biggest role in that rise of any individual player, and I believe the difference he has made on the Bears is greater than the difference Mahomes, Brees, Rivers, Gurley, Donald or anyone else has made on their respective teams.This is not just about a guy lifting a team from bad to middle. This is about lifting them from middle to great. The Bears are a legitimate Super Bowl contender, right now, in 2018, a status we would not have reached this year without #52’s arrival.Which brings us to another part of the MVP argument: pressure.Pat Mahomes is playing lights-out football, but the pressure on him to do so at the start of the season was miniscule compared to what Mack faced. The 2016 Defensive Player of the Year was rumored to be traded to one team, and instead was traded to their rivals one week before the two teams played. He had to step on that field in Week 1 without the conditioning advantage of training camp or preseason and perform at a level befitting the highest paid defensive player in the NFL.In just one half, Mack delivered a sack, pick-six and forced fumble. This was a stat line that no other Bear had done in a game since 1950, and that only seven Bears had ever done in one entire SEASON.Maximum pressure. Maximum expectations. And a performance that wiped away the former and exceeded the latter.Defensive Player of the Year honors production. MVP assumes production and honors intangibles. MVP is not only about what you bring to a scheme but what you bring to a TEAM. It’s not only about what you do but about what your teammates do because of you. It’s not only about how you affect your side of the ball but how you affect your teammates on the other side of the ball. It’s not only about how you make your teammates and coaches feel but about how you make your fanbase feel.It’s the total package. Mack fulfills it.Some seasons are surprising at the time yet still surprising in retrospect — 2001, for instance. This season is surprising only from the vantage point of August 30, 2018. Looking at it now, it all makes sense. Everything fits. There is nothing flukey about the 2018 Bears. We are a Super Bowl contender. Not next year. Now. It’s no surprise. It’s what MVPs do.---Jack M Silverstein is Windy City Gridiron’s Bears historian, and author of “How The GOAT Was Built: 6 Life Lessons From the 1996 Chicago Bulls.” He is the proprietor of Chicago sports history Instagram “A Shot on Ehlo.” Say hey at @readjack.