As the simmer becomes a slow boil on the Khalil Mack trade chatter, one unlikely suitor has been sucked into the stew.

In tweets sent out nearly simultaneously, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media and Albert Breer of SI.com flag the Bears are potential destinations for the 2016 defensive player of the year.

The text of the tweets is eerily similar. Tweeted Breer at 8:15 a.m. ET: “One team that other teams are keeping a close eye on in the Khalil Mack trade talks: The Chicago Bears. They’ve been quiet, but they have attractive capital.” Said Rapoport, at the exact same minute: “One team to watch in the Khalil Mack sweepstakes: The Bears. They have been undercover, but others in the mix are watching them and waiting. Would be a big move.”

The untrained eye would claim that the person who posted the second tweet stole the idea from the person who tweeted it first. But that’s not how it works. Sources who are hoping to spread a message or start a narrative or, in this case, engineer a major trade will send out text messages to multiple reporters at the same time. Some reporters will flat-out cut and paste the text message; others will at least paraphrase.

Regardless, it happens. And the Breer-Rapoport bang-bang tweets are smoking-gun proof of it.

So here’s the real question: Who’s putting out the word that the Bears are quietly pursuing Mack? Surely it’s not the Bears. Maybe it’s the Raiders. More likely, it’s Mack’s camp.

With Donald hitting the jackpot, Mack undoubtedly wants the same. And if the Raiders can’t or won’t give it to him, there’s a new urgency to get someone else to give Mack that kind of money. It happens only if a trade can be engineered.

What better way to do that than to inject as many teams into the public conversation as possible? Especially those that have tried to stay out of it.