For a minute there, it looked like the shared vision of the Chargers and Khalil Mack for 2022 was about to play out in a very, very big way.
Set opposite Joey Bosa, easily the best bookend Mack has ever had, the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year registered three sacks in the opener against the team that drafted him. What’s more, it was back-to-back sacks from him and Bosa that closed the Raiders out. It was, as those guys saw it, just the beginning. Or so they thought.
“It was like a high. Man, it’s going to be like this? This could be a 20-sack year,” Mack said, sitting at a picnic table after an early August practice. “We were rolling, getting everything we wanted. Run game, pass game, three sacks. I’m like, Oh man, you could take a deep breath. Going into the K.C. game, rough game for us, but still had them where we wanted them. It was kind of one of those things where you’re building.”
